SOEKARNO Bo Tarenskeen i.s.m. Het Nationale Theater

What begins as a fight for freedom grows into a revolution that becomes increasingly difficult to control. How do you bring a deeply divided people together? How do you prevent a country from falling apart? And how do you remain true to your own values while doing so?

Romantic, pioneer, anti-imperialist, intellectual, provocateur, mystic, nationalist, traitor, national hero, democrat with dictatorial traits? His name still evokes intense reactions. Our image of Soekarno is determined by feelings of betrayal, humiliation, and forced farewells. But also by misplaced moralism and a painful lack of political courage.

Bo Tarenskeen and Esther Scheldwacht play the young and the old Soekarno. We witness the formation of Soekarno's thinking against the backdrop of the Japanese occupation, the declaration of independence, the Bersiap, the colonial war, and the coup that ended his presidency. A daring performance about the desire for unity, the derailment of violence, and the vulnerability of democracy.