How Anansi freed the stories of the world

In this effervescent, colourful family performance, an international cast of opera soloists, musicians from diverse genres, a DJ, ballet dancers and dancers from the hiphop scene bring together a whole range of different cultures, languages, sounds and movement styles. The makers – including hiphop choreographer Shailesh Bahoran, South-African composer Neo Muyanga and librettist Maarten van Hinte – deliberately opted for a non-Western source of inspiration: the story of the spider heroine Anansi, who has taken on the task of freeing stories of the jungle from the claws of an imperious tiger. The myth originated in Ghana, then travelled with the slave ships to Suriname and the Caribbean, where the popular story of the defiant Anansi grew into an expression of covert rebellion against the plantation owners.

Hypnotic snake, skating hornets and a vegetarian leopard

Director Kenza Koutchoukali and designer Dieuweke van Reij – along with the other makers – transport you alternately to the (urban) jungle and the palace of the cunning, power hungry tiger Tigri. He commands Anansi to gather all the stories of the world for him, including those about a hypnotic snake, a group of skating hornets, a vegetarian leopard and a charming princess. But the resourceful Anansi invents a ruse and outsmarts Tigri. Whereas the tiger wants to keep all the stories within the palace walls, Anansi frees them and gives them back to the world, so that everyone can enjoy them.