Role: Illustrator
Theater play
Production: Tal en Thee
My partner, Jeroen Ceulebrouck, created and directed beautiful animated visuals for Naaf and asked me for help to illustrate a special part of the play.
"Naaf tells the story of the Wielingers, a community with traces of a wild fishing past still in their blood. They’ve traded the sea for building bikes, as a mysterious cycling fever takes over the island. Everyone seems affected except Boets, an old net-maker who keeps tying knots with no clear purpose.
Who is she doing it for? And why is she the only one who truly understands the silent child, Naaf?"
Who is she doing it for? And why is she the only one who truly understands the silent child, Naaf?"
I contributed illustrations for the three stories told by the old net-maker on stage.
These were animated and projected during the performance to support the narrative.
These were animated and projected during the performance to support the narrative.
I loved so much the atmosphere of the play, full of nostalgia, salt and the raw unforgiving life of the island and the sea.
Story 1
The first story followed a group of fishermen who, after surviving a shipwreck, gathered around a big fire on their island, singing to dry their lungs out. Their wives looked on from the cliffs above, silent.
Sketches
Story 2
The second story brought to life the coldest winter the island had ever known. Sheep died from the biting wind, boats were trapped in the frozen sea, and the bell in the watchtower was so covered in frost it could no longer ring.
Sketches
Story 3
The third story is the saddest of all. It tells us about Boets, the old net-maker, who was just a little girl at the time. She was the only one on the island who felt compassion for the dying whale that had washed ashore. One night, she brought it a small blanket she had made, to protect it from the cold, and began to sing to it. But the whale didn’t survive, and for days, its body fed the birds along the beach.
Timelapse
Sketches