CODA: Openingsvoorstelling Warming Up 2025
We kick off Warming Up Festival 2025 with CODA. Cello Octet joins forces with actress Sophie van Winden in this compelling opening performance, where generations enter into dialogue about the future of our planet. That is: an old woman holds her generation accountable for the future of her grandson—a future that looks anything but bright. Do generations truly live together, or is it already too late for this individualistic society?
Magda is 97 years old and ready to stop living. She can’t do it anymore: take to the barricades, dive into politics, or invest in renewable energy. She still has one bottle left to empty and a final cigarette to smoke, but she has something to say. Because if stories are meant to pass on life’s lessons, what story needs to be told now? What must not be buried with her?
Magda makes one last attempt to stir our imagination and offer hope in times of despair. Accompanied by the music of composer and climate activist Ryuichi Sakamoto, she takes her listeners through the thousand small things needed to build a new future together—even as she feels life slipping through her fingers.
The piece draws inspiration from death scenes in world literature—from Couperus’ Eline Vere to Werner Schwab’s Grollfeuer—as well as from the Heading for Extinction talk by philosopher Chris Julien. In a search for the small steps we ourselves can take, and for the role of the artist in the climate crisis, Cello Octet and Sophie van Winden joined forces to create a performance that strikes us in new places and inspires us to act—while we still can.
Sophie van Winden graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2005. She has played leading roles with Het Nationaal Theater, Toneelgroep Oostpool, and Orkater.
Right after graduating, she won a Golden Calf for her role in the film Leef!. Since then, she has appeared in films such as Happy End, Code Blue, Eileen, and Kenau. In 2016 she starred in Prooi, and more recently she featured in Yim Brakel’s debut film Othala.
On television she has performed in numerous series.
In 2015 she founded her own theater collective, Waal en Wind, together with Eva Marie de Waal, creating theater and podcasts from a female perspective. As a writer, she co-wrote the telefilm 20 leugens, 4 ouders en een scharrelei, wrote the short film Retour, and penned all productions for Waal en Wind.
This program is part of Warming Up Festival 2025: a month of art, culture, and science about living together in a warming world. Discover the full festival program at wearewarmingup.nl.
