scored for viola

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additional music 

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Mevrouw Bob confronts the comforting illusion that life distributes pain unequally. No one is born by accident, and no one arrives here merely to be happy. Yet it is tempting to believe that others—especially the privileged—move through life untouched. Mevrouw Bob is here to dismantle that misconception.

The piece unfolds as an intense dialogue between text and music. A highly successful businesswoman, embodied by Tania Van der Sanden, is suddenly faced with an incurable illness. What seemed controlled and self-evident fractures. Certainty gives way to vulnerability; distance collapses into immediacy. The present is forced to look at itself without protection.

The music mirrors this inner rupture. It drifts between remoteness and raw proximity: thin, brittle memories dissolve into sharp rhythmic presence. Percussion and marimba cut and soothe at once, while the viola carries warmth, friction, and melancholy. Sound becomes both balm and salt on the wound—a space where clarity and pain briefly coexist.

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Text: Peter De Graef

Music: Bo Spaenc 

Actress: Tania Van der Sanden 

Additional music: Mathias Coppens 

Viola: Marc Tooten 

Costume: Chris Snik 

Light design: Mark Van Denesse 

Coaching: Sam Bogaerts 

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Mevrouw Bob was commissioned by Hermes Ensemble and deKolonie and was first performed on September 20 2019 at Corzo, Antwerp (Belgium).