The Lone Star - Hotel Modern and New Dutch Connections

"The lone star" - that is what Liberians call the great star on their national flag. After 34 years, theatre maker Bright Richards returned to his birthplace Liberia for the first time, the country he had to flee during a bloody civil war. Do they still know him? What can he mean to the country now? He takes the audience to places that were once important to him and to the stories that shaped his life.

Hotel Modern brings this return to life through ingenious models, puppets and live animation film. Past and present intertwine: horrific war memories and the new daily reality alternate in an unsettling rhythm. Bright tells the history of Liberia - a country born in the wake of slavery - and grapples with the violence in which child soldiers were deployed. He seeks hope in the way the women of Liberia worked for disarmament and peace. The performance asks how you can face your demons from the past, whether you can process a war together, and how perpetrators and victims can move forward with each other.

Creators and performers: Bright Richards, Herman Helle, Arlène Hoornweg and Pauline Kalker. Technical: Joost ten Hagen and Pablo Strörmann. A co-production of Hotel Modern and New Dutch Connections.

Hotel Modern has gained international acclaim and theatre awards with productions such as Kamp, Garnalen Verhalen and De Grote Oorlog. The artistic core members are visual artist Herman Helle and theatre makers Arlène Hoornweg and Pauline Kalker. New Dutch Connections (NDC) makes urgent stories of newcomers visible and connects them with audiences, communities and the business world. Founder Bright Richards received the Gieskes Strijbis stage prize, an 'Appeltje van Oranje' and was named 'Changemaker of the Year' by the VSB Fund in the field of diversity and inclusion in the performing arts.