OTEMBA – Daring Women is an international musical theatre performance about colonial relations, the female gaze and autonomy; our view of the other and of ourselves, in the eyes of the other. The performance explores questions of identity, the impact of colonial legacy and shows women following their own path, across time, space and social class.

During the restoration of a 17th-century painting in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Japanese-Dutch Cornelia van Nijenrode steps out of her frame and into the 21st century. She challenges Indonesian Kirana Diah, who is restoring the painting, to a late-night conversation.

The performance sketches a magical moment in the restoration process: a one-time nocturnal encounter of heterogeneous identities and cultures, across the constraints of time and space; between painting and reality, between then and now, between East and West. Between two women who want to rewrite colonial history in their own unique way. Also present at the conversation is a ‘scanning robot’, artificial intelligence that is supposed to cooperate as a neutral data analyst, but also turns out to have a voice of its own.

‘Otemba’ is not just the title of the piece, but also one of over one hundred and sixty words that Japanese derives from the Dutch language. It refers to rebellious women who refuse to be subjected and go their own way.

‘In Otemba, different characters, from different times, come together to stand up for a new view of our history. Restoration is also called ‘management of change’, and this restoration gives a renewed, decolonising perspective on the past.’ (Director Jan van den Berg)