Shows

Police Project in Rotterdam 2002

Rotterdam Wijktheater -

The Police Project June 2002 - May 2003

The Rotterdam Wijktheater is a community theatre company based in the south of Rotterdam. They produce multicultural work that attracts new audiences and celebrates the diversity of their city.

With the rise of drug and poverty related crime in the city, and a disillusionment with the role of the police, Rotterdam's only community theatre company commissioned MakeBelieve Arts to direct a show that is created and performed by young people for young people and utilises the companies skills and belief in peer group education.

Crime City

Working in collaboration with Rotterdam's Wijktheater, MakeBelieve Arts produced a touring show that looked at young Dutch, Moroccan and Sudanese people's relationship with the police. The show grew out of Artistic Director, Trisha Lee's links with the Netherlands as a result of her TIE tour of 'A Fair Cop', which she directed whilst in the post of Participatory Projects Director at London Bubble, and performed in Rotterdam in March 2001, as part of the Community Theatre Festival.

The show begins with the arrival in Rotterdam of people from Morocco, which historically began to take place in large numbers in the mid '60s. We then follow the lives of a group of five young people, who gradually become more involved in crime as financial pressure and the need to keep up with their peers convinces them to take the easy money route.

The show toured schools and community venues in Rotterdam from June 2002 - May 2003.