Elckerlijc

For 500 years the white man thought he was Elckerlijc. Now he must die, for good.

A post-dramatic costume drama, a requiem without tears, a ritual road trip to the point of no return.

The Elckerlijc (± 1500 A.D.) is a Medieval primal story from the Low Countries, an allegory of death. URLAND reverts to this Dutch classic to answer the current zeitgeist. This moral story of Elckerlijc is a part of Dutch cultural heritage that is quite unknown (and therefore unloved). URLAND endeavors to change that by radically restoring this Dutch Book of Death.

Elckerlijc is everyone. Everyone dies and must eventually answer to God, or Nature, or to oneself… The piece reminds the viewer of the fact we die, and so poses the crucial question: How to live? Since its formation, URLAND attempts to translate universal stories and themes to the stage. But is a universal story actually still a thing? Do we, in 2021, still recognize ourselves in an allegory?

A new light has been shed on the term ‘universalism’. The disappearance of the dominant white, male perspective is THE most important turning point of our time. But making room is more easily said than done. URLAND, in Elckerlijc’s role, counters its own morale of the story, and will reinforce itself for this theatrical reckoning with a number of guest performers.

URLAND’s Elckerlijc is a celebration of theater, of language, and a mad attempt at embracing Death.