Waste me / XL / 13+

Prior to most touring performances, you can watch the Waste Me documentary in the theater.

The Waste Me Documentary by Paul Sixta offers a behind-the-scenes look at the research behind Waste Me. Cecilia's artistic practice relies on laboratories and interviews, keeping her work connected to society and current issues. For Waste Me, she spoke with young people about consumerism, waste, and climate change, gathering personal stories that shaped the performance.

The documentary also features exclusive rehearsal footage and the Waste Me Laboratory—workshops with Rotterdam youth. These sessions fostered direct dialogue, allowing participants to share their thoughts, frustrations, and ideas.

Watch the documentary HERE online. 

Waste Me is a performance that mainly consists of dance and non-verbal theatre. It includes a few Dutch-language voiceovers, which are translated into English below. The performance is designed to be understandable without these voiceovers, making it accessible to audiences who do not speak Dutch.

1. 
People are natural collectors.
This has been the case since the dawn of time.
Archaeologists constantly uncover ancient collections from our ancestors: nuts, beads, stone tools, pots, jewelry.
They were even buried with their belongings.
We are hoarding creatures, always longing for more.
It all comes down to this: you are what you have.
You are what you have!
What was new yesterday is out of fashion today.
So, leave the old behind.
Use everything no more than once.
Each year, we produce 5 tons of waste per person.
We can do better than that: ten thousand, a hundred thousand kilos per second.
Buy it, throw it away, buy it again!
Just do it!
Waste it!
Shop till you drop!
Drop! Forget! Take! Grab!
Hoard, hoard. Hoard!

2.
You fell in love instantly.
Last week, you saw her for the first time in the shop window.
At night, you dream of her.
You want nothing more than to hold her and never let go.
You can’t eat, you imagine a future together.
You picture who you could become with her in your collection.
How others will look at you with envy.
It’s impossible to focus,
your fingers tingle, your heart races, your breath quickens.
Oh come on, is there any better feeling…
than walking out of a store
with a big shiny bag full of new things?
Or when your package finally arrives after what feels like ages,
and you tear the cardboard to shreds,
the confirmation email that says:
Congratulations! It’s official! It’s all completely YOURS!
Doesn’t the thought already make you feel warm inside?
All you have to do is say YES.
Don’t get distracted.
Don’t think of others.
No, no, think of—
your potential.
You can truly become anything,
you just have to dream it… and then buy it.
And do you know the best thing about stuff?
It doesn’t talk back.
That’s why we need more.
More raw metals, more sweatshops, more mines, more factories, more plastic in our drinking water, more oil tankers in the harbor, more coal to burn, more people to exploit, more ka-ching ka-ching, it’s never enough!
We have to keep going,
until there’s not a single blade of grass left.
We can’t stop now—we’ve come way too far.

3.
A thing is a lifeless object
An object or entity without a specific name
A possession or item someone has control over

A thing is a fact, a circumstance
An action, an event, a goal

Thing, things, tool, machine, device

Tool, instrument, mechanism
Something whose name is unknown or forgotten

Equipment, goods, clothing, luggage, belongings

Obsession, mania, fixation, weakness, complex, thought, situation

Substance, element
Material, texture, matter
Entity, being, body
Body
Body
Body

4.
It all starts with YES.
A baby’s first word is YES.
After one YES comes another YES.
NO is unnatural, NO is hard, but YES,
YES is the answer to everything.
What’s better than YES?
Feel how your whole body, every cell, every particle screams: YES, YES, YES!
More of more is more YES and another YES and another YES.
It costs you nothing to say YES.
Be a YES in a world full of NO.
Yes! You get a YES! And you get a YES! Everyone gets a YES!
YES, go ahead.
YES, YES
YES, that’s good. YES, I do.
Say YES to everything you don’t want.
YES
YES to your impossible dreams.
It’s YES, until death do us part.
Yes, I do, I do, I do.
Yes… Yes… Yes…