Mannetje met de lange lul

Impassioned and reckless

Philosophy and art run away with each other in this piece by Kuno Bakker and Jorn Heijdenrijk. They drew their inspiration from the frivolous and controversial ideas on freedom and happiness propagated by the 18th-century philosopher Julien Offray de la Mettrie. The title comes from an essay De la Mettrie wrote shortly before his death.

Bakker and Heijdenrijk play an impassioned and reckless game with love, happiness and each other. They are man and wife, lover and adulterer, art lover and misanthrope. They jeer the narrowminded and cheer for art. In this performance De la Mettrie’s ideas are focused on the present day. His adage is that you are responsible for your own happiness. The question is whether we do not give away too much of this freedom now that happiness is more of a diktat than a choice.

Little Chap with the Big Prick is about freedom of thought and action, both on and off stage. It circles around marriage in a kaleidoscope of words, images and music. The institution where happiness and freedom are best able to endanger each other.