HNTjong presents theatrical performance about young girls coming to the Netherlands

When director Dimphna van Kempen taught theatre to young people, she heard many stories in the breaks from girls who had come to the Netherlands. Stories that deserved to be told. Together with documentary maker Isaura Sanwirjatmo and writer Sanne Schuhmacher, they went to watch and listen. Twelve girls told them about their mother, their little brother, the street, the house, the teacher, their journey to a new country. Small, but great stories. A Country Inside My Head is about these young women and was made with them. Kimberley Agyarko plays the show on 28 November at Maaspodium and 22 December at Theater Zuidplein.

In a monologue, Kimberley Agyarko plays Afia who left Ghana for the Netherlands with her parents several years ago. She is making a film for her sister, who will soon make the same journey. In this way, Afia hopes to prepare her sister for life in the Netherlands and show how to build a new life as a young woman in a foreign country. She wants to protect her sister from the trials, obstacles and awkwardness she experienced when she just arrived in the Netherlands. Yet she narrates her journey swinging, with humour and with a hopeful future.

A Country Inside My Head (a production of The National Theatre) is based on true stories of young women from China, Kenya, Yemen, Bulgaria, Ghana, Libya and Somalia, among others.

Cover photo: Bowie Verschuuren