A playful ritual of remembering. For kids aged 5 and up!
BONY BUDDY / 5+
Language No Problem
By:
Maas theater en dans | Grote Mensen
Age:
5+
Genre:
Physical theater
IN SHORT: Bone Buddy is a funny and moving performance about saying goodbye, grief, and memories, combining music, dance, magic, and humour. Together with the audience, two performers create a colourful and playful farewell that makes room for both sadness and a celebration of life.
BONE BUDDY
Bony Buddy (Dutch title: Skeletje) is a poetic, funny, and comforting performance about saying goodbye. Theatergroep Grote Mensen and Maas theater and dance take you on a journey through memories, mourning rituals, and the mystery of death with humor, music, play, and color. Because saying goodbye can also be beautiful. And sometimes even festive.
Two performers explore what it means to be dead. One of them has passed away, but hasn’t realized it yet. This leads to confusion and unexpectedly funny moments. Together, they search for ways to say farewell: what remains of someone, and how do you give that meaning? Slowly, a ritual emerges, full of lights, stories, and confusion. And space for joy.
With slapstick, magic, dance, and visual play, a place of remembrance grows – filled with flowers, candles, skeletons, and stories. Bony Buddy builds, together with the audience, its own farewell ceremony. Not heavy or solemn, but playful, moving, and full of life. A performance for anyone who has ever been touched by loss – and wants to discover how, with streamers, dance, and memories, you can also make it into a celebration.
Inspired by traditions such as Día de los Muertos, in which farewell and remembrance are celebrated with color, flowers, and music, Theatergroep Grote Mensen and Maas theater and dance create a lively ritual on stage. The sadness may be there, but so is the party. A sparkling ode to life!
A performance in which loss and memories come to life. For everyone: big, small, fleshy or boney, from age 5 and up.
More performance dates coming up for Fall 2026. The performance is partly Dutch spoken, but contains a lot of physical theater in which no language is used.
Grief and loss as a theme
Bony Buddy is a poetic and sometimes confronting performance about loss, memory, and grief. Themes such as the death of a loved one or saying goodbye to a pet are explored. Some children (and adults) may feel deeply affected by this. The performance isn't shocking, but rather addresses death with care and honesty.
Would you like to chat or unwind afterward? Our online scrapbook contains conversation starters, background information, and tips for use at home or in the classroom. Good to know: most pages are created in Dutch.
About Theatergroep Grote Mensen
Some people say: “Grown-ups are children who have stopped playing”. How could they know? We are Grown-ups (Grote Mensen in Dutch)). And we do play. We have already experienced a lot, we understand everything by now and we will show that. Grote Mensen makes theatre for little people. Visual, wild, comic performances with slapstick and makeshift sets about serious little and grown-up questions.
ABOUT DIA DE LOS MUERTOS IN THE PERFORMANCE
An explanation of the project’s partners and the cultural context of the performance
The performance Skeletje emerged from a personal and research-driven engagement with mourning rituals and Indigenous worldviews. For this project, theatre-maker Dwayne Toemere draws on his Surinamese Indigenous heritage (Kalina and Lokono) and his ongoing research into embodying Indigenous knowledge within the performing arts, in connection with the research group at the Academy of Theatre and Dance.
The themes of Skeletje are partly inspired by Día de los Muertos, not as a visual backdrop, but as a philosophy. Celebrated around the world, including within Indigenous communities in South America, this festival represents connection, remembrance of ancestors, and the celebration of life and death as an inseparable whole. Skeletje explores this ritual depth in a playful and thoughtful way.
The project involved close collaboration with the Indigenous Network in Amsterdam, which, among other activities, organises the annual Día de los Muertos celebration and is connected to Mexican and Latin American communities in the Netherlands. Artist and cultural practitioner Damaris Bolio contributed to the project’s conceptual, musical, and visual development and made an important altar object available for the performance. Discussions were also held with, among others, Mexican Indigenous activist Aldo Ramos to ensure careful consideration of symbolism and representation.
Maas theatre and dance and Grote Mensen are subsidised, non-profit foundations. We do not claim this tradition as our own; rather, we seek to pay tribute to it through shared heritage, collaboration, and a collective commitment to caring for cultural stories that can and should be shared. Especially with children.
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Credits
Lisa Groothof, Dwayne Toemere, Yannick Greweldinger
Toonbank: Maarten Bokslag & Tom Nestelaar
René Geerlings
Djoeke Westdijk & Joeri Brederode (intern)
Bianca Buijs
Maas theater and dance & Grown Ups
Hilde Harshagen
Kamerich & Budwilowitz
Skeletje is made possible by AFK and the Cultuurfonds (het Bertien Fonds & het Felix en Roelie Fonds).
Booking Inquiries
Sales of Bony Buddy are handled by Theaterbureau Vanaf2.
everywhere (in consultation)
6 x 6 x 3 meter
220 (theaters) / 100 (other)
40 minutes + 10 minutes epilogue
5 up untill 10 years
21 comments on BONY BUDDY
We’re eager to know what you thought of this performance! Will you let us know?
Peter – Verkadefabriek in Den Bosch
"Deze voorstelling laat zien hoe belangrijk het is om de kracht van theater in te zetten om over dit onderwerp een voorstelling te maken. Zodat jong en oud het hier samen over kan hebben. Onwijs gelachen en meegesleurd in de verbeelding en verwondering. En ontroerend om te zien hoe de acteurs met zo veel plezier en liefde het verhaal vertellen en ons meenemen op een prachtige reis. "
Marloes
"Allerleukste jeugdvoorstelling die ik met mijn dochters heb gezien. Grappig en ontroerend. Absolute aanrader!"
Joa
"Ik heb de laatste jaren als prille vader tientallen theatervoorstellingen voor kindjes gezien en Skeletje was de meest geestige, ontroerende, hartverwarmende, originele, gelaagde en dus gewoonweg de sterkste van allemaal."
Max
"Leuk!"
Tjeerd
"Prachtige voorstelling over afscheid nemen en herinneringen! Leuke muziek en dans!"
Mieke
"Mijn dochter van 8 jaar en ik vonden Skelletje een prachtige voorstelling. Over het leven, met humor, muziek, mooi vormgegeven, beweging en een prachtig verhaal. Het liedje zat thuis nog in ons hoofd en nu weken er na lachen we nog samen over grapjes uit de voorstelling. Bedankt!"
Gabriel
"Zeer leuk met de pratende skelet en het grote skeletten hoofd. Zeer interessante combinatie van een lach en een traan. De muzieksmaken van de spelers was heel leuk."
Catherine
"Dank jullie wel voor de geweldige voorstelling vanmiddag! Mijn dochter en ik hebben zo ervan genoten. Thank you!"
Carry Stikvoort
"Wat een ontzettende leuke voorstelling, ik was samen met mijn kleindochter, Vera, van 8 jaar , we hebben samen genoten 🤗🤗🤗"
Oma Ruth
"Wat een fijne voorstelling! Heb er zeer van genoten. Dank jullie wel!"
Nele
"Echt super super leuk! Echt een aanrader!"
Anoniem
"Fantastisch acteer werk!"
Luk
"De 'ruzie' om de muziek vond ik het allergrappigste."
Anne en Robert
"Wat een parel van een voorstelling!! Mijn zoon van 6 genoot, ik genoot. Er was emotie en er was plezier. Tranen en lachen. Hier gaan we een weekend van nagenieten. Geweldig gespeeld!"
Jette en Elin
"Wij vonden het begin en de spoken het leukste!"
Anoniem
"It was hilarious and really tender"
Din
"Leuke voorstelling. Energiek, goed verhaal en voor kinderen een mooie manier om iets te vertellen over de dood."
Anoniem
"Heel erg leuk! Verrassend!"
Anoniem
"Mooi, raakt in het hart, met kippenvel en een lach!"
Jim
"Ik vond het een leuke voorstelling en ik hoop dat ie nog lang gespeeld wordt."
Anoniem
"Ik zit in groep 6 en ik vond het heel grappig maar er was ook een druppel bij mijn oog."