Verlangen is a performance in which oral Caribbean storytelling, poetry, music, and personal narratives come together around one central theme: longing as a driving force of survival and identity. Spoken in Dutch. Master storyteller Roland Colastica was accompanied by percussionist Vernon Chatlein and saxophonist Ludwin Colastica, who brought the performance to life musically.

From the historical context of Curaçao as a hub of the Dutch slave trade, traditional stories—such as those of the flying slaves and the spider trickster Spin Nanzi—are connected to contemporary themes including migration, language, fatherhood, masculinity, and cultural alienation.

The performance moved between myth and reality, between humor and tragedy, and between collective memory and personal experience. Verlangen appeared in different forms: as a desire for freedom, for material recognition, for love, for equality, and for emotional space. With minimal theatrical means and a strong storytelling tradition, Roland Colastica created a layered performance that is both culturally-historical and highly relevant today. Verlangen offered insight into the continuing impact of colonial history on contemporary identity formation, without becoming didactic. The result was an accessible yet profound storytelling performance about humanity, vulnerability, and the search for home.

Roland Colastica (Curaçao, 1960) is a writer, playwright, actor, and teacher. He made his literary debut in the 1990s and has published several collections of stories and poems, including Rueda di fe and Djis kant'i Bo / Heel dicht naast mij. He has also written several children’s books and has performed at book and theatre festivals in many countries. His monologue Ninga bon has been presented successfully on numerous occasions. Another one-man show by Colastica is Fo'i bo kuenta, a tragicomic mixture of stories, poems, sketches, music, and songs. As a writer and performer, he has worked across all continents and has participated in international literary festivals such as Een zee van verlangen (2001), Winternachten, and Krusa Laman in The Hague, Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. In 2006 he received Curaçao’s highest cultural distinction, the Cola Debrot Prize, for his work as a playwright and theatre maker. He also wrote a Dutch-language novel for young readers titled Vuurwerk in mijn hoofd. He is currently—thanks to the support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature—a writer-in-residence in Amsterdam, where he is working on a novel for adults.

This program was in Dutch. The program has been organized in collaboration with Roland Colastica and Writers Unlimited.

Verlangen – Stories from Curaçao by Roland Colastica
Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 20:00–21:30
Theater De Vaillant, Hobbemastraat 120, The Hague

Writers Unlimited organizes the annual Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague (next edition: January 21–24, 2027) and hosts monthly programs throughout the year at various locations in The Hague. The festival, featuring more than one hundred writers, poets, spoken word artists, and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad, takes place over four days in venues including Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, PAARD, neighborhood libraries, universities, and secondary schools across the city.