
“Only a few times in a generation a completely original theatrical voice will burst onto the theatre scene and revolutionize form and structure of theatre-making worldwide. Roosen is such an iconoclast”
Melody Brooks | Artistic Director New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC)
Since 2010, she has been implementing her ‘adoption method’, in which her actors and theatre makers move in with local residents, in order to truly mirror themselves through the encounter with a new stranger. Her method has taken root worldwide, from neighbourhoods in Tehran to Mexico City and from Tangier to an asylum seekers’ centre in Utrecht. The foundation of her work is collecting and shaping these stories and perspectives. In her work, she does not shy away from any subject: honour killings, domestic violence, (homo)sexuality within the Islamic world, her mother’s Alzheimer’s, the status of her love relationship and saying goodbye to each other on stage with a dying friend. Everything is allowed and must be done in public. Every year since 1986 Adelheid has been teaching at the Academy of Theater and Dance Amsterdam


ROOSEN&BORST (2022+2024) | TV series on a humane approach to dementia
Both mothers of journalist Hugo Borst and Adelheid Roosen died of this number one public disease: dementia. Since then, Adelheid and Hugo have been working hard on a humane approach to this disease. At this moment this critically acclaimed series, broadcast on national television, is in its fourth season in collaboration with national broadcaster ‘HUMAN’. In this new series, Adelheid and Hugo explore the possibility of having the ultimate conversation – can we still have that profound exchange with our loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, allowing for a peaceful goodbye? And what actually means a ‘good death’?

DYING HAS BEGUN (2024) | an exercise in saying goodbye
Adelheid has found her paradise in George Groot – her language teacher at the academy, life friend and stage partner. George is a well-known Dutch cabaret artist and lyricist. In 46 years, they have created 12 theatrical encounters. Each time, from masterful truthfulness and radical intimacy, they open up their lives, their relationship and state of mind to each other. When it turned out that George had only a few months to live, the 13th performance was born: Het Sterven Is Begonnen ( Dying has begun), an exercise in saying goodbye.
A three-hour ritual to crown George, to give him words during his lifetime while dying. To give mourning and farewell a stage, in togetherness with his loved ones . To really work through it together and to thank each other while alive, welcoming every emotion.

URBAN SAFAR TANJA (2024) | Theatrical journey through the old inner city of Tanger, Morocco
‘Urban Safar’ is much more than a performance; it is a form of immersive theatre. Visitors do not settle into theatre seats but are taken on a journey through the neighbourhood and with that through themselves. Boundaries will blur between play, theatre and reality in ‘Urban Safar Tangier’ because of this intense involvement of neighbourhood residents and this deep dive into diverse cultural and geographical perspectives. Starting point is Adelheid+Female Economy’s established adoption method. For several weeks actors and residents live together and share their homes and their lives. Those intertwined lives and stories are the essence of an overall authentic theatrical experience that explores themes such as queerness, the suffocating grip of patriarchy, discrimination, and circumcision, among others. The three-hour performance tour ends with a musical grand finale by the Moroccan musical cabaret performers of Kabarah Cheikhats, celebrated both in Morocco as well as internationally.
Kabareh Cheikhats is a group of men performing Moroccan folk heritage, paying tribute to the cheikhats—free but marginalized women who challenge injustice through powerful song and dance. Their performances go beyond music, breaking taboos and honoring a culture often neglected by Moroccan youth. By embracing female identity and challenging patriarchal norms, Kabareh Cheikhats creates a space for liberation and societal reflection.

DOULAS OF THE CITY (2021) | An award-winning film about women who use their past traumas to help others
‘BEST LOCKDOWN FILM’ | BETTIAH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, INDIA 2021
The film DOULA’S VAN DE STAD (DOULAS OF THE CITY) follows Adelheid Roosen’s admiration for women who in the capillaries of their neighbourhoods and their city are ready to help others every day. With alert senses, the doulas – those who guide you – fight poverty, loneliness, domestic violence, crime and more. They see injustice, taste sadness and hear violence in the silences.
The planned theatre performance in 2020 with eighty doulas could not go ahead due to Corona measures. To make these unrecognized auxiliary forces in society visible, Adelheid still brought seven of these women together to continue rehearsals that had already started via intimate zoom sessions. In the Zoom sessions, led by moderator and bodywork therapist Jale Simsek, the eight women, including Adelheid, discover that they have more in common than they had expected. The eight doulas opened up their hearts and welcomed the audience into their lives and living rooms. It was this exceptional candor that revealed the source from which these women could continue to give and it resulted in an unexpected twist: Doulas of the City became a film.

IN TESTIMONY | Adelheid and Leendert bear witness to each other’s life questions and traumas
In the film ‘In Getuigenis’ (In Testimony), Adelheid and emerging visual and performance artist Leendert Vooijce investigate a next step in their personal life journey and the questions that arise at this stage in their lives. Where in your identity lies shame, where lies trauma? What do you need from another person to dare shape these questions, to be able to truly feel them. Based on the philosophical idea of Emmanuel Levinas, who argues that you develop your identity through the eyes of the other – the other shapes you because you perceive yourself through his gaze -, Adelheid and Leendert decided to be witnesses to each other’s answers to these questions.
In front of the camera, they reveal their pain of exclusion and rejection to each other through two monologues. In order to make these monologues really resonate with the viewer, they address the viewer directly. In the film, they address the camera, which represents the viewer as the third person in the room. So the viewer has the experience to be part of the testimony to these life stories.
MAM | Adelheid dives into their mother’s world with dementia
When her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Adelheid discovered first-hand what that meant. Just like Alice in Wonderland, who fell into a hole in the ground running after a white rabbit, she followed Mam (Dutch for ‘mom’) into another reality. By traveling along, a new and intense contact was created and Adelheid discovered that Alzheimer’s does not have to mean alienation and distance, but can also lead to a true encounter with the other. She depicted her journey in the documentary Mam (2009).
Mam (20 minutes) shows how Adelheid together with family members discovers who her Mam is evolving in, now that she has Alzheimer’s, they are moving along with the journey that Mam is making.
You can book the film including a follow-up discussion with Adelheid, in which she is looking forward to talk to you . You can ask her anything, about her loss, her turning point, the new approach to her mother, unexpected humor. About loving in stammering words.
CHEIKHATS, A RITUAL BEYOND BINARY THINKING | an exhilarating ritual in which male and female energies merge
In Cheikhats, various rituals merge in a shared search for a world beyond binary thinking. The audience is welcomed into a space in which that which has not healed finds healing and in which rituals explore how the feminine resides in the masculine and vice versa. We do not have to invent that world, because it already exists. We only have to remember it.
The ten male members of Kabareh Cheikhats honor the musical tradition of the Cheikhats; female artists who were socially marginalized because they exposed prejudices and inequality with their provocative songs and sensual presentation. At the same time, they are also one of the pearls of Moroccan musical heritage. The male performers dress as these women and bring this heritage to life with exuberant performances in Morocco, Europe and America. In this way, they connect with their own feminine qualities and question stereotypical views in society on gender as well as Moroccan culture.

RIJSEN&ROOXMAN, DEDIKKEMUIZ&SJORS | Adelheid investigates on stage, with her lover and his ex, whether her relationship is on or off
Lovers, exes, friends and strangers. That is what these four actors are of each other. Adelheid called upon her partner, his ex, and her stage friend to help her publicly address the urgent questions about the state of her relationship. Carefully but with determination they create a performance about vulnerability and desire, about delight and pain. They make an attempt to be honest, and to take measure of each other with humor. To support each other. To unfold each other. To be and stay connected to one another. Because loneliness comes when there is no bedding, and every person wants to be themselves in openness.
Adelheid, Lineke Rijxman (established Dutch actress), Titus Muizelaar (Award-winning Dutch actor and director) and George Groot (cabaret artist, lyricist) four actors with intertwined lives and loves, investigate the state of love in a playful ritual and whether indeed the eye is the mirror of the soul if you look into it mercilessly.


Chairman of the day

Guest lecture

Workshop

Directing/Dramaturgy
What others say
“Female Economy receives the Cultuurfonds Prize because, as a self-proclaimed ‘theatre pack’, they are a great example of how culture connects. They literally take people on a cultural tow. The stories are real, the artistic value is very high and the method is unique: really walking around in each other’s lives, immersing yourself in the other and then having artists, neighbourhood and city residents work together. This produces not only beautiful performances, but so much more: equality and intense connection with new groups in society, involvement. A cultural and positive counter-voice in the current polarization.”
The Advisory Committee of the Cultural Fund, 2023
“Only a few times in a generation does a completely original theatrical voice burst onto the theatre scene and revolutionize form and structure of theatre-making worldwide. Roosen is such an iconoclast”
Melody Brooks | Artistic Director New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC) 2017
Adelheid Roosen won the Harper’s Bazaar Woman of the Year Audience Award as a ‘great source of inspiration to society’ and because of “her special artistic qualities”.
Jury report Harper’s Bazaar Woman of the Year, 2019
“That is again that almost magical, connecting power of theatre maker Adelheid Roosen and kindred spirited fellow artists (…) who always manages to fully infiltrate a (problem) neighbourhood.”
De Telegraaf about WijkSafari AZC, 2018

Want to connect with Adelheid? Contact Demelza Janmaat
Demelza@FemaleEconomy.nl
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