About     Past Editions     Support     Contact     EN / ES



PROGRAM 2026        OPEN CALLS        WORKSHOPS        TICKETS









Lunatics & Poets
Lunatics and Poets is an interdisciplinary dance company and creative studio based in Amsterdam, founded by Anna Jacobs and Hanna van der Meer. They create works for theatre, film, and installation in which choreography, visual arts, and fashion merge.

Through movement and fashion, they shape impermanent identities, emotions, and beliefs. They speak a new universal language of gestures, movement, and imagery drawn directly from everyday life. It is poetic and absurd, clear and dark at the same time. Their work brings audiences together and sparks diverse dialogue. Spectators are captivated by a world they have never seen before and leave reflecting on their inner landscape and on a shared, collective future.

Their recent works include the installation The Land of No Curtains, which premiered at the Festival d’Avignon (2022), and the performance The People Look Like Flowers at Last (2021). Their duet Soy un poema, no hay salida won the Club Guy & Roni Partner Award at the Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition (2018), the Golden Butterfly Award (2019), and First Prize at the Festival 10 Sentidos (2020).

Their short film El largo adiós (2020) premiered at the Fashion Film Festival Milano in January 2021. Among their earlier works is the cinematic installation and theatrical performance South of No North. Their productions have been presented and screened in the Netherlands and internationally, including at Cinedans, Dansmakers Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Korzo Theater, the Jonge Harten Theater Festival at the Grand Theatre Groningen, as well as the National Theatre of the Netherlands and Theater Rotterdam.






Postcards from a Better Place
In a social context where individualism is increasingly privileged and contact with others tends to become virtual, Postcards from a Better Place by Lunatics and Poets illuminates the darker side of human nature. From a childhood game to open violence, it is this inner darkness that confronts us with irreversible actions, shame, and guilt. The performance becomes a poetic portrait of the darker side that, at the same time, humanizes us.

The set design refers to rooms in which emotionally charged moments unfold almost cinematically, where interior and exterior worlds begin to overlap in shadowy ways. We need light in order to create a performance about darkness. Light and darkness cannot exist without each other: there is no darkness without light, and vice versa.

Everyone has dark thoughts and emotions. Our inner darkness is a large part of who we are, yet we rarely speak about it; it remains somewhat hidden, in the shadows. The piece examines the darker side of life both on an intimate, individual level and on a global one. Where do dark thoughts and emotions come from, and under what circumstances do they emerge?
.




Tech Rider
Country  
Netherlands

Direction
Anna Jacobs, Hanna van der Meer

Assistant Director
Merit Vessies

Composer
Rik van den Heuvel

Lighting Design 
Samon Presland

Lighting 
Maarten van Burken

Set Design 
Ascon de Nijs

Costume Design 
Samir Duratovic

Production
Samir Duratovic


In addition to its performance, the company facilitated a masterclass for festival participants.