How A Roundabout Works

How A Roundabout Works is a shared writing between Jan Ritsema and Jonathan Burrows, made together in 2019. It's an alternating and digressive argument between two friends, which was intended as a performance, but got stopped by Ritsema’s illness and the Covid lockdown.

Jan Ritsema was an associated artist of Kaaitheater (since the 1980s) for which he made some of his landmark performances, Wittgenstein Inc. (solo for Johan Leysen, 1989), Philoktetes-wariaties (with the Wooster Group’s Ron Vawter, Vivian De Myunck and Dirk Roofthoofd, 1994), Kopnaad (text by Stefan Hertmans, 1995), and TODAYUlysses (with Bojana Cvejić, 2001). With Jonathan Burrows, Ritsema performed Weak Dance Strong Questions (2001), an improvised dance that toured widely.

On October 10, 2021, Ritsema passed away. We will take the occasion of Kaaitheater’s closing celebration to say goodbye to Ritsema, too, and to present his last written words. The text How A Roundabout Works will be read by Jonathan Burrows and Bojana Cvejić.