Blind - a play by Lot Vekemans

A play by Lot Vekemans

German translation by Eva M. Pieper and Alexandra Schmiedebach
With Peter Kremer and Lisa Wildmann
Directed by Karin Eppler
Photo: (c) Martin Sigmund
EURO-STUDIO Landgraf / Schauspielbühnen in Stuttgart, Altes Schauspielhaus

Richard once built dams and aqueducts. Now, after his wife's death, he lives in quiet withdrawal in a residential complex. He cut off contact with his daughter Helen - a lawyer married to a Black writer - because he rejects her political views. That makes it all the harder to ask her for help when his eyesight fails and he can no longer manage alone. Two irreconcilable ways of life collide. Neither has been willing or able to build a bridge to the other.

Both are blind - blind to each other's perspective, blind to the wounds they have inflicted on one another - until a cautious rapprochement begins and they slowly start to grasp each other's motives, fears and desires.

Detlev Baur, writing in "Die Deutsche Bühne" on 29 November 2024, predicted that this "well-made conversation piece will soon be seen on many stages" - and praised its layered, emotionally affecting father-daughter conflict. "BLIND", the new play by Dutch playwright Lot Vekemans, has been performed in over 35 countries and translated into 22 languages. Its universal and timely themes strike a chord. The author asks whether it is possible to love someone whose convictions you reject.

Press reviews:
Equal opportunity, distributive justice, climate change, ecological exploitation, racism - and above all the generational divide: Lot Vekemans' father-daughter play ticks almost every box of contemporary concerns. (...) In her production for the Altes Schauspielhaus, Karin Eppler focuses on psychologically motivated character work and can rely on the nuanced, sensitive performances of her two-person cast.