”Something inhibits me from asking him for what I need. I know, if a very young boy can intuit such things, that I am left out of his world and am somehow forbidden to ask him what I can do to have him take me into his world, to hold me playfully or tenderly. The rift begins here. This is the earliest memory I have of my father.”
- bell hooks, The will to change, p. 47
A radical attempt at rejection of the patriarchal norms that hold us prisoners, and a love letter to the dream of change.
ZERO-SUM is an ongoing theatrical research in which two men, and a director, try to look [beyond/between/above/beneath] the patriarchy to find a new form of existence as [man/woman/???]. The journey takes them through childhood, history, myth and nature, to question the foundations of ’masculinity’ as we’ve come to know it. Is it possible to reject the system that raised us, to imagine a world where we are free?
Premiered October 16th, 2025 at the Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
CONCEPT, TEXT AND DIRECTION Elin Löfman
CO-CREATED AND PERFORMED BY Tijmen Dietvorst, Andre Dashorst, Elin Löfman
SCENOGRAPHY Elin Löfman
SOUND DESIGN Geert Oddens
LIGHT DESIGN Pim Elberse
VIDEO DESIGN Elin Löfman
ADVISED BY Quirine Racké & Helena Muskens
PHOTOS BY Sjoerd Derine