The Following Story, 2001

Adapted from The Following Story© Cees Nooteboom, published in Great Britain by the Harvill Press.

The story, told in the first person, of Herman Mussert - Classics teacher, travel-writer, adulterer, philosopher, and amateur of tinned foods. Torn between insight and incredulity, Mussert has encountered the limits of 'the life of the mind'. He cannot preserve his present at a distance from his past. He is unable to reconcile a lifetime's meditation on eternity with the apparent consequences of death. He can no longer coordinate body and soul. The resulting disorientation is conveyed by two performers who collaborate and compete in their portrayal of his memories, his longings, his uncertainties. These same performers embody, at the same time, the two women who have long obsessed him: his mistress and his muse.

Adapted and directed by Sinéad Rushe
Performed by Jenny Boot and Sinéad Rushe
Sound preproduction by Peter Rose
Sound and lighting operated by Des Demetsopoullos
Programme and flyer design by Dermot Rushe

Performed for six nights at BAC, London, in May 2001.