Sonder

The word sonder describes the feeling one gets upon realising the lives of everyone you meet, up close or from a distance, are as rich and intricate as you own. The play 'Sonder' is a strikingly ambitious theatre  production merging cutting-edge technology with a deep reflection on the core of what it means to be human, touching the themes of loss, mourning, and social connection. 

Much like in Living Apartment Together (2025), the previous performance of Yves Degryse, BERLIN and NTGent, Sonder is an in-depth research of what it truly means to meet someone. What does it take – in theatre and beyond – to establish empathy and social connection between public and characters, between audience members, and between the public and the city surrounding the theatre?

At the same time, Sonder is very different of its predecessor, a life-size projection on the blind façade of a flat block of the fictional lives of 14 inhabitants, including a talking dog. Sonder builds on a project by Ghent art photographer Kaat Pype. Four years ago, she lost her mother, completely unexpected. Looking for a way to support her father in his grief without losing sight of her own need to mourn, she launched an appeal to single women of her father's age who were willing to welcome him into their homes.

For Sonder, Yves Degryse and BERLIN are creating a making-of documentary about the project of Kaat Pype and her father. Pype's father, not an actor but a former police officer, is also one of the main characters in Sonder. On stage, he will talk to his deceased wife, in dialogues partly scripted and partly improvised, leaving the audience wondering for how long a mourning husband can continue these imaginary discussions. 

Gradually though, it becomes clear that the imaginary conversations are in fact real ones. At least, they seem real. Or even more precise: they are real but not in a traditional sense. In Sonder, the role of the deceased mother will be played by Alva Ishii, the digital house artist of NTGent created with artificial intelligence. In the months leading up to the premiere of Sonder, Alva Ishii will absorb the Pype family's memories of the mater familias: photos, videos, documents,.. In the play, Alva will carry her voice, give answers she could have given, and at the end possibly even appear as a physical entity.

Nonetheless, Sonder is not a performance about artificial intelligence. It is a performance that uses technology to try and grasp the intangible mystery of (life after) death. What does loss and mourning mean when the deceased can sit at our dinner table whenever we want, thanks to technology? What happens when they remain part of our lives in ways we long couldn’t imagine? Will this continuous presence help us get through a difficult period of mourning? Or is it an increasingly painful postponement of the inevitable process?