For the first time in the Netherlands and Belgium, Wunderbaum and NTGent present a translated cycle by the German-Swiss author Sibylle Berg, whose unforgettable characters are brought vividly to life.

People with Problems follows, across four parts, the lives of a woman and her friends through different stages of adulthood. Their hopes and expectations gradually dissolve, their bodies begin to rebel, and the world around them starts to fall apart. They sell homemade drugs online, remain permanently connected through digital channels, and become single mothers whose careers have long since burned out.

Meanwhile, outside, an almost hopeless battle for democracy rages on. Slogans are chanted against immigrants, same-sex marriage, and meat substitutes. The women look with suspicion at younger generations, who seem to move through life with greater ease. Determined not to surrender, they confront a crumbling world and imagine new ways of making life on this planet sustainable in its current form.

Presented here as a theatre marathon, Berg’s plays are provocative, furious, and immensely powerful. They are charged with intelligence, humour, anger, and compassion. Possessing a profound sense of existential urgency, they amount to nothing less than a sweeping reckoning with almost everything. Yet beneath the celebrated author’s razor-sharp sarcasm, there is always a glimmer of heart-rending melancholy. Her work is a frontal assault—at once deeply misanthropic, fiercely ironic, and exuberantly alive.