Some things (fall into the water): about having to say goodbye to life and to each other
You know, sometimes I get so terribly angry. What a stupid waste of time this is, this whole idiotic processing! We should have been living now. That anger eats up energy. It makes you dog-tired. Sometimes I still can't believe it: hey, is Roel really gone? Do the children no longer have a father?' - Clara van den Broek
On September 22, 2011, author, columnist and theater person Roel Verniers died of cancer at the age of 37. By openly fighting his battle against the disease, including with the columns he wrote about the change the disease brought to his life, and the moving radio interview with Friedl', Roel Verniers became a pillar of support and a symbolic figure for many fellow sufferers.
A year later, his children Anaïs (10), Wolf (6) and his wife Clara Van Den Broek perform a musical theatre performance about life after daddy's death. The three survivors tell the story of three ants who float around on a raft made of wreckage after the flood. It is not yet clear whether they will see land.
Their story, with illustrations by Philip Paquet, is preceded here by the poems that Roel Verniers wrote at the birth of Anaïs.
Some Things (Fall into the Water) is, based on a very personal experience, a universal account of loss and hope.
It's about trying to save yourself. About an ideal world that is going under, and how to find your way.
About beautiful memories and how to draw strength from them.
About being hopelessly lost, and still trying to save it.
About losing your place and looking for a new one.