CARGO Shanghai - Friesland

A documentary truck ride

By Karrenbauer / Kaegi

The Netherlands are one of the largest exporters of milk and dairy products in the world. China is one of the biggest markets.
The Holstein-Friesian cow is one of the most productive milk cows in the world and with its black and white colouring is synonymous, par excellence, with the dairy cow.
In the agriculturally industrialised plain of Friesland, it is often the only thing that stands out against the endless green of the pastures. And nesteld in between, a few dairy farms.
In CARGO Shanghai - Friesland, 46 spectators embark on a fictional journey backwards, from the milk powder on the shelves of Chinese supermarkets, via the container port in Istanbul, onto the motorways of Europe, and so into the barns of Friesian dairy farmers. These farmers pursue farming strategies which are often quite as different from their neighours, just as their children have different lifestyles from their parents.
The audience is seated on the loading platform of a former refrigerated truck that has been converted into a mobile auditorium with a large window pane and which is driven by Frisian trucker veterans Willem (66) and Louw (75). Behind the wheel of countless trucks, they have experienced the effects and changes of an increasingly intensive globalised exchange of goods first-hand.
Cargo Shanghai - Friesland is a site-specific performance that feels like a road movie. A Frisian Route 66. It is accompanied by a soundtrack which synchronises live with the world on the other side of the window pane.
 
 
Concept: Stefan Kaegi
Direction and Script Friesland: Jörg Karrenbauer
Production Management: Juliane Männel, Jörg Karrenbauer
Dramaturgy: Janneke de Haan
Truck Drivers: Willem Overwijk and Louw Hacquebord 
Assistent Director: Romke Gabe Draaijer 
Sound Artist: Dennis van Tilburg 
Video Artist: Jurjen Jellema 

Brave New World Producties, Artistic Director: Claudia Woolgar 
Brave New World Producties, Business Director: Jan van Erve 
Brave New World Producties, Fundraiser: Gerrie Visser 
 
Based on Cargo Sofia-X which was produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and Goethe-Institut Sofia in 2006, this event is specially created in Friesland with a young creative team from the region. 

Produced by Brave New World Producties, working in partnership with Arcadia / LF2028.
 
 

Dates

Leeuwarden, Brave New World Producties
14.05. – 23.06.2022
Current dates / All dates

Foreign language press

IN EEN KOELWAGEN LANGS DE FRIESE ZUIVELINDUSTRIE
Joost Ramaer
16.05.2022 / Theaterkrant

Met de vlam in de pijp door het Friese landschap
Wiggele Wouda
14.05.2022 / Friesch Dagblad

Babymelkpoeder, de weg terug
JACOB HAAGSMA
13.05.2022 / Leuwarder Courant