MARKED is a spectacular theatre production which premieres on May 6th at Theater Junushoff in Wageningen. It’s presented as collaborative production as part of the 100 years WUR celebration.
Nine students and two staff members of the university team up on stage with four professional actors known from theatre, film and TV. Together they bring back to life the intense history of this university during WWII. The show is repeated on May 7, 8 and 9.
Tough choice
MARKED is about a group of student friends in Wageningen in 1943, who are forced to take a stance regarding the infamous declaration of loyalty: only students who sign and declare themselves loyal to the enemy are allowed to continue studying.
Whoever refuses to sign or indicates they cannot pledge to be loyal to the occupiers will be sent deep into Germany to work in forced labour camps. And what about the risk that parents remaining at home could be severely penalized for one’s ‘wrong’ choice?
Every student now must make a decision: to sign or to refuse. Are you allowed to sign if you need only one more month to finish your studies, or does that make you a traitor nonetheless? Is it wrong to sign the declaration to protect your parents? What if you’re best friend wants to sign, but you don’t? Do you value patriotic love above romantic love when it really comes to it?
The group slowly disintegrates as every single one of them tries to find a way out of the ethical dilemma.
Loyalty Under Pressure
Inspired by a non-fiction book by Historian Onno Sinke, Loyalty Under Pressure, about students and resistance during WWII, and based on interviews of eyewitnesses, MARKED takes the audience back to everyday survival strategies of you caught in the midst of war.
The play shows how students in Wageningen try to deal with ethical dilemmas and each other. Supported by BigBand-music from the 30s and 40s, MARKED brings the gripping story of the student resistance in Wageningen to the stage, in the city where it all took place.
Hiding
Here you can read more about how the students fared during the war from the beginning in 1940. 154 of the 700 students eventually signed the declaration of loyalty to the Third Reich. 150 Students enrolled for forced labour in Germany, and the rest went into hiding
The direction is in the hands of Albert van Andel, for more information and ordering tickets on getekendwageningen.nl. The performance is also suitable for non-Dutch-speaking visitors because of the English subtitles.
