A manual for the future

Since the dawn of space travel, astronauts hurtling through the vast darkness have been consumed by the love for our planet that suddenly strikes them. And you want to protect that what you love. We need to zoom out, is the message they have for us. We need to see how everything is interwoven and connected, and come to understand our vulnerability, floating through endless space. Observing life from a space traveller’s viewpoint should give us the perspective we so sorely miss. A perspective that ignores the daily obsessions with which we are rapidly depleting the planet. Nicely put, perhaps, but how do you actually go about this?

For Stadsastronaut (City Astronaut) and her book entitled In lichtjaren heeft niemand haast (Nobody is in a Hurry in Light Years, 2021), over the course of a number of months, writer and theatre maker Marjolijn van Heemstra subjected herself to astronaut training, in the hope of discovering a manual for the future. Together with space travel experts, futurologists, science fiction and her neighbour Bob, she zooms out from daily life, one step at a time. Well, that’s the intention, anyway. Stadsastronaut is a lecture by a DIY space traveller seeking out the very largest in the very smallest. Ideals and reality have been brought together in a cautious entreaty for more faith in the future. Not just for ourselves, but especially for those yet to come.

With carefully selected words and a soothing voice, Van Heemstra takes you on a journey through the mind. – Groene Amsterdammer

Times and other information
Fri 10 Sept | 8.30PM > book your dinner ticket in De Westerkerk (for this day)
Westerkerk | Price: €12,50 | Language: Dutch


Get your tickets here.

About Marjolijn van Heemstra

Marjolijn van Heemstra is a writer and theatre maker exploring in her work how we can reflect on ourselves and the world in another manner. In her performances, she mixes well-considered activism with poetry and humour. She has been writing for De Correspondent since 2019, addressing the question of how space can help us to view the Earth differently. Her book In lichtjaren heeft niemand haast (Nobody is in a Hurry in Light Years), published in late May 2021, deals with this theme. Van Heemstra also makes podcasts, such as Sør, Stadsastronaut and Binnen Bühne. She has won a number of literary prizes with her collections of poetry and her novels, with her latest novel being translated in eight countries.