In cooperation with Toneelgroep Maastricht 

LET’S TALK is a new programme in which we not only give the floor to experts, but also challenge the audience to speak up and interact. In a lively and relaxed setting, we address issues of (student) life: relationships, career, love, health, stress, party life and engagement, etc. Have a drink, listen, talk and sharpen your thoughts and opinions.

Since 14 February is Valentine’s Day, the first LET’S TALK is about love, sex and relationships. We seem to live in an era filled with possibilities. We have a smartphone full of potential partners in our pocket. Open relations and polyamory are on the rise, our idea of sexual consent is changing and romanticism seems to be disappearing in the face of consumerism in love. #MeToo makes it clear which sexual behaviour is healthy or unhealthy, and there are ongoing discussions on the crisis of the man and on the sense or nonsense of gender-neutral toilets and language. Does this lead to a transformation of behaviour in the field of love, sex and relationships? Is this era so very different to previous ones? What role is played by social media in the sexual development of young people? Can we control our behaviour, or is falling in love mainly a chemical process in our brain?

Two experts shed light on these developments and issues, and discuss them with the audience. You are also invited to participate in a game set-up, in which you talk about the different topics one-on-one.

Peter Bos tells us how love works: how our hormones influence our brain, and thereby alter emotional regulation, social sensitivity and empathic behaviour. Marijke Naezer investigates how young Dutch people from different backgrounds perform sexuality in social media.

This programme is linked to the theatre play Noem het maar Liefde (in Dutch), which is premiered on Sunday 10 March: www.toneelgroepmaastricht.nl

Toneelgroep Maastricht - Noem het maar liefde (Call it love)
A comedy about lust and affection

Anniek Pheifer and Jeroen Spitzenberger star in Noem het maar liefde (Call it Love), a brand-new comedy by critically acclaimed Dutch author, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. The play chronicles different encounters set in the famous Majestic Imperial Hotel, in which hundreds of rooms provide space for loneliness. The old rock star and his wild groupie, the successful director and his ambitious secretary, the gay bartender and the single woman, the old couple, the haves and have nots, there is one thing common to them all: they are all yearning for real love.

In an ironic, scathing yet touching way, Pfeijffer shines light on love in the 21st Century – a time in which sex and love are all too easily confused. The scenes are bound together by a live-band, formed by the actors themselves under the musical direction of Viktor Griffioen. Director Michel Sluysmans turns Noem het maar liefde into a hilarious tale of deceit, loneliness, temptation, longing and intimacy.

With Anniek Pheifer, Jeroen Spitzenberger, Jan Paul Buijs, Jouman Fattal, Viktor Griffioen, Elisabeth De Loore
A new play by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Director Michel Sluysmans
Music Viktor Griffioen
Set design Michiel Voet
Lighting design Bart van den Heuvel
Costume design Sabine Snijders
Sound design Bauke Moerman
Dramaturgy Paul Slangen

Première              Sunday March 10 2019, Theater aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht.
Tour                      Thursday March 7 – June 1st 2019, The Netherlands and Belgium.
Surtitled version   Thursday March 7, Theater aan het Vrijthof – Maastricht.

Tickets for students: http://www.theateraanhetvrijthof.nl/index.php?cID=7008