WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY / WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY
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(EN) The Stage Award winner for acting excellence 2014 (best ensemble, Sirens) Verona Verbakel brings a shameless ode to desolate puppy-love in all its mundane, absurdist glory.
A tragicomic theatre monologue intended to bring light to patriarchal stereotypes, dangerous gender role-patterns and the loneliness of dating. ​

Explicit language and scenes of a sexual nature.

Creation & execution: Verona Verbakel.
Duration: 55 minutes.
Thanks to: C Venues, Edfringe, Ontroerend Goed & Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
 This is the dark mirror of the empowering monologue, troubling and unashamed.
- Gareth Vile (The List, The Skinny, etc.)
 Flemish actress Verona Verbakel, previously noticed in performances by Wunderbaum, De Warme Winkel, Kopergietery and Romeo Castellucci, presents a funny mix of satirical self-mockery and shameless candor in Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. She exploits the contrast between the social expectations of her intellectual communist upbringing and the sexual confusion of her fetish with aquatic creatures and amphibians.
- De Volkskrant - Annette Embrechts
An absurdist and pleasantly crude homage to puppy love.
- Wearepublic Utrecht
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© Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
​Watch the English trailer of the show here:
Bekijk de Nederlandse trailer van de voorstelling hier:
Picture
© Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
(NL) Een schaamteloze ode aan troosteloze kalverliefde
in al zijn dagdagelijkse, absurdistische glorie.
Een coming-of-age rond patriarchale stereotypes, toxische gender-rolpatronen en de eenzaamheid van daten. 

In de voorstelling wordt expliciete taal gebruikt. 
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Creatie & uitvoering: Verona Verbakel.
Duur: 55 minuten. Op De Parade Utrecht wordt de ingekorte versie van de voorstelling (35 minuten) gespeeld.

​Met dank aan: Wunderbaum, Solar Vlaar, Karin Staes, De Parade & Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

 De Vlaamse actrice Verona Verbakel (29), eerder al opgevallen in voorstellingen van Wunderbaum, De Warme Winkel, Kopergietery en Romeo Castellucci, presenteert in Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History een grappige mix van satirische zelfspot en schaamteloze openhartigheid. Ze buit het contrast uit tussen de sociale verwachtingen van haar intellectuele communistische opvoeding en de seksuele verwarring van haar fetisj met watercreaturen en amfibieën.
- De Volkskrant - Annette Embrechts
Picture
© Els Vanopstal


TOUR LIST / SPEELLIJST
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​2024

08.03.2024 om 20:00 - De Spil - Roeselare (BE) - Nederlandstalige versie

01.02.2024 om 20:30 - Arenberg - Antwerpen (BE) - Nederlandstalige versie


2022
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​27.07.2022 om 18:45-19:20 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Shambles) - Utrecht (NL)

27.07.2022 om 20:30-21:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Shambles) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

28.07.2022 om 18:30-19:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

28.07.2022 om 20:30-21:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

29.07.2022 om 18:30-19:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

29.07.2022 om 21:30-22:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

30.07.2022 om 18:30-19:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

30.07.2022 om 21:30-22:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL) - Uitverkocht

31.07.2022 om 19:30-20:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL)

31.07.2022 om 21:15-21:50 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL)

01.08.2022 om 19:30-20:05 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL)

01.08.2022 om 21:15-21:50 - Moreelsepark (Tent: Theater Correct) - Utrecht (NL)
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​05.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​06.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​07.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​08.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​09.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​10.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

11.08.2022 at 10:35PM (!) in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​12.08.2022 at 10:35PM (!) in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)
​
13.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

​14.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)
​
15.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)
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16.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)
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17.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)
​
18.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

19.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

20.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

21.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

22.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

23.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

24.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

25.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

26.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

27.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)

28.08.2022 at 6:55PM in Venue 34 - Edinburgh (UK)
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REVIEWS
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 This is the dark mirror of the empowering monologue, troubling and unashamed.
- Gareth Vile (The List, The Skinny, etc.)
Flemish actress Verona Verbakel, previously noticed in performances by Wunderbaum, De Warme Winkel, Kopergietery and Romeo Castellucci, presents a funny mix of satirical self-mockery and shameless candor in Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. She exploits the contrast between the social expectations of her intellectual communist upbringing and the sexual confusion of her fetish with aquatic creatures and amphibians.
- De Volkskrant - Annette Embrechts
 An absurdist and pleasantly crude homage to puppy love.
- Wearepublic Utrecht - Daniël Kieft


TRAILER
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FULL REVIEWS
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 Verona Verbakel’s Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History makes a move away from the generic female monologue by exploring three raw elements of performance – text, movement and speech – against an absence of scenography. In a venue barely transformed from a coffee house, and with no scenery and a light scheme that relied on the natural daylight streaming in from the large windows, Verbakel relates a series of stories, which appear to be autobiographical, about sexual awakenings and misadventures. Having previously been a member of the cast for Ontroerend Goed’s Sirens, a fiercely polemical and emotionally devastating feminist masterpiece, Verbakel’s solo show speaks to a continuation of Sirens’ unashamed resistance to patriarchy. Yet it is subtle, and has its own voice and a more ambiguous intention.
 
Alone on stage, Verbakel takes advantage of her physicality to generate a character who appears to have been restrained by her personal history. Her gestures never become expansive or melodramatic, but feel contained, as if her very body has been compacted by her sexual experiences. Without using anything as simple as a symbolic gestural vocabulary, her presence and posture tells a tale of oppression and suppression. Then her voice, at times world-weary, then almost naïve and optimistic, detaches her from the darkness of the narratives. Like the recitation of a grand dame recalling her youth, Verbakel’s vocal character is disengaged, passing over acts of male abuse as perfectly acceptable or, perhaps, an amusing routine. Yet the stories themselves are frequently horrific, identifying the casual misogyny, lack of self-awareness and male privilege that makes heteronormative relationships more a pattern of patriarchal power-plays than a mutual, loving journey.
 
Despite the sophistication of the performance, the affect is immediate and raw: moments of humour are simultaneously moments of horror and Verbakel’s persona remains morally ambiguous, almost disdainful. There is no special pleading, no attempt to position herself as ‘the good victim’. The format recalls stand-up comedy, but stripped of its simpering and pandering to an audience. This is the dark mirror of the empowering monologue, troubling and unashamed.
Gareth Vile – 4th of September 2022 (UK)
 De veelbelovende acteurs Gavin-Viano Fabri en Verona Verbakel delen hun intieme confrontaties met het Parade-publiek. 
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De Vlaamse actrice Verona Verbakel (29), eerder al opgevallen in voorstellingen van Wunderbaum, De Warme Winkel, Kopergietery en Romeo Castellucci, presenteert in Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History een grappige mix van satirische zelfspot en schaamteloze openhartigheid. Ze buit het contrast uit tussen de sociale verwachtingen van haar intellectuele communistische opvoeding en de seksuele verwarring van haar fetisj met watercreaturen en amfibieën.
Haar adoratie voor convexe oogbollen zou ze nog veel meer op de spits mogen drijven. De solo oogt nog een beetje droog. Maar Verbakel heeft wel een vermakelijke verteltoon, die doet denken aan een kruising tussen de Dear-Sugars-podcaststem van Cheryl Strayed en De fabeltjeskrant van Meneer de Uil.
De Volkskrant - Annette Embrechts (NL)