Artificial Happiness does blurred lines at the Fringe Festival

Sep 5, 2013 | by Frederike | Art, Event, Music

About the author

As a twenty-five year old writer, hummusaddict, night decorator, Master student, secret girlfriend of James Franco and lover of thick books, I totally agree with the saying that wolves don't lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.

Are you also grieving the fact that we have to wait another year before De Parade perches back on Amsterdam ground? Whether you did a performance marathon or only sipped on some Sangria, you might also think that this theatre festival is one of your nicest summer memories. But I’ve got news for you, there’s also a fall version. The Fringe Festival holds 80 shows at 33 different venues around the city. To make it a bit easier for you this week there’s just one you can’t miss: The Cult of Matter by Artificial Happiness.

It’s all about the money

The people behind Artificial Happiness have the power to create fairy tales around heavy weighed themes, which makes it easy to watch even if your not a hardcore theatre fan. This time they built their story around Materialism with a capital M. Must sound familiar, because nowadays a lot of conversations, magazines, advertisements, television programs and happy feelings are about stuff. What does this love for (many) things do to us? That’s one of the questions the characters will illustrate.

artificial happiness

All this is poured in an experimental form of act, live music and text. No sharp edges but blurred lines between these different genres. One thing I can assure you: you’ll be surprised. If you’re curious after the whole program of Fringe, you can see it here.