A theatrical transformation experience about consciousness, choice, and the unbearable burden of being human.

About the supposed superiority of the human being,
and the question of whether it might not be better
to be a cockroach.
About the pain of self-awareness and reflection.
About the beauty and cruelty
of complex thoughts.
About the absurdity of being human
and the fact that there is no way back
once you are human.
About how small our rich 'self' makes us.
And about the beauty
of living under a rock
and being invisible.

CONTENT
De Menswording is an immersive performance installation in which the audience experiences themselves as a cockroach waking up for the first time in a human body. They’ve been selected for a special program: a human has seen them, felt pity, and now sponsors their "becoming human."

In a world where animals can be “helped” by humans through transformation into humans, the central question arises: Is being human truly a step forward? Or is it a tragicomic misunderstanding full of overthinking and loneliness?

The project explores the absurdity, beauty, and tragedy of self-awareness. With humor and alienation, the audience is confronted with the idea that, once you are human, there may be no way back—or is there?

In De Menswording, we use Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as an inversion, a reflection, or perhaps even a parody. Where Kafka’s Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning as an insect—a transformation that undermines his humanity and ultimately reduces him to an unbearable body—we allow the audience to undergo the opposite movement: they awaken as cockroaches in a human body.

This reversal enables us to present being human not as something self-evident or superior, but as something to be questioned. Instead of pitying the human who loses their dignity in an animal form, we ask: what happens when an animal—in this case, a cockroach—is given “the honor” of becoming human? Is that truly a step up? Or is being human itself a tragicomic state filled with fear, shame, and the paralysis of reflection?