The core of Marijn Ottenhof’s work is always performative; either in live presence of actors who interact with the audience, or performative elements such as stage sets, scripts and soundtracks. The starting point in her work is a fascination for trust and control. The current timeframe, with its rapid succession of crises, seems to create a society suffering from post-traumatic stress. The untrustworthiness of authorities and the inability to walk on solid ground results in symptoms such as hypervigilance, repetitive patterns, fragmentation and emotional dissociation, which is why these return as strategies in her work. Reality as a construct translates itself into minimalistic, stylised stage sets in which actors awkwardly deliver lines from critical theory and political speeches, or improvise lines based on their own experience. Front and backstage, fact and fiction, the scripted and the unscripted are mixed up.