A Court of Paper - Documentary Theatre

This event will be held in English

In January 2025, the Dutch Central Archive for Special Jurisdiction released 450.000 documents containing the actions of Dutch citizens who collaborated with nazi Germany. After 80 years of silence, this re-entry into the public eye has sparked (inter)national debate, and provokes an entire generation of young Dutch people to decide if they want to know who they are related to.

A Court of Paper is documentary theatre in which Cecilia and Matthew dive into the archives and their family histories, containing stories of the collaboration, resistance and oppression, in an attempt to understand the past and make its lessons tangible in the present. This performance includes multimedia elements, live translation from Dutch and German into English, and active audience participation in three modes (translator/observer/participant).

About the artists

Matthew Schwarz and Cecilia Thoden van Velzen are politically driven theatre makers from the Netherlands. After studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland they founded Greensleeved, an ensemble-based theatre collective that advocates for the audience’s right to imagine and think, and challenges theatrical tradition by building more inclusive ways of interacting with story.

About the event

🎬 Duration: 100 minutes without interval

🌍 Language: English, with additional translations for Dutch and German

✍️ Written and performed by: Matthew Schwarz and Cecilia Thoden van Velzen

🎨 Design: Charlina Lucas