NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
KINGS…..COME HOME
March 5 - 16, 2025
KINGS...come home tells the story of a family in search of a new home. After leaving their original home, they embark on a journey to find prosperity, opportunity, and safety. They discover a house in the middle of a field, move in, and create their utopia—until the walls begin to shift, and the house gradually falls apart. As their journey continues, we witness the enduring effects of their constant displacement and how it reshapes their reality.
KINGS...come home delves into the echoes of migration, born from a myriad of social and economic trials. It traces the deep-seated ties between migration and the enduring shadows of our colonial past. Whether spurred by climate change, the fires of war, or the weight of institutional racism, it is the unseen barriers that guide both their departure as well as their arrival. The play raises a crucial question: "How does the sustained experience of displacement and uprooting shape the search for a true home for both individuals and families?"
Kings...come home is composed by Michael Lampe, musical & cultural curation by Lynnee Denise, dramaturgy by Ilgin Abeln & Jonathan McCrory and choreographed by Faizah Grootens & Amel-Che Parkinson.
Playwright: Smita James, Veronique Efomi & Munganyende
Conceived & Director: Ira Kip
Co-directed by Winston "winne" Bergwijn
At the The Victoria Theatre @ The Apollo
A program as part of the FUTURE 400 an initiative of Netherland Consulate General of New York
what does it mean to perpetually be displaced and unrooted when in search of a home?
Leading Artists
VERONIQUE EFOMI
Playwright
Veronique Efomi (Kinshasa, Congo, 1990) is a poet, songwriter, and author. Her poetry weaves true stories with unexpected twists, layers of meaning, and touches of absurdism. She finds beauty in pain and hope in vulnerability, her voice adding depth to her work. Her neoclassical music invites listeners to dance, while her blend of Afro-synthwave and ambient music connects past and future. Debuting as a spoken word artist in 2015, Veronique's work gained nationwide recognition. In 2019, she was named one of the Makers of Arnhem. After five years of performing solely with her voice, she sought a new way to engage audiences, leading to her 2020 debut album, "The last pearl." This album brought her poetry to a wider audience. In 2021, Veronique published her first book, "Richer Than the King," a poignant narrative about her struggles with the loss of her father and her turbulent growth. That same year, she was honored as Poet's Choice of the Year. In 2023, she released her second album, "Got Breath," an exploration of gratitude, loss, and self-discovery, which earned her a nomination for the Gelders Bokaal 2023 from the Cultural Arts Fund.
MUNGANYENDE
Playwright
Muganyende (Kigali, Rwanda, 1993) is an author and professor in Beyoncéology at ArtEZ academy, where they examine the performance of sound and culture as a mode of knowledge production. Munganyende is a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction and organizes womanist interventions that center the perspectives of black women and refugee daughters using literature, performance art and visual culture. She serves as the chairwoman of the Steenbergen Stipendium photography prize at the Dutch National Museum of Photography and is currently a fellow at De Groene Amsterdammer. Her debut novel will be published by Pluim Publishers. Munganyende is considered an important voice of her generation and has received various awards and honorable mentions, including the UNESCO Literature Prize CCS Crone, ELLE 30, and VOGUE Voices. Munganyende is part of the international association of art critics (AICA). In 2023, she was a resident at the Zanele Muholi Art Institution in Cape Town. In 2024 they were part of the LOATAD Black Atlantic residency program in Accra. Munganyende lives, works, and loves between Dakar, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Her preferred pronoun is ‘rich auntie’.
SMITA JAMES
Playwright
Smita James (Nijkerk, The Netherlands, 1983) is a Surinamese-Dutch writer, poet, and performance artist. Since 2002, she has performed her works on renowned literary stages such as Re-definition, Cinnamon Wednesdays, Woorden worden Zinnen (words become sentences), Read My World, and Poetry International. This makes her part of a community that was once the underground spoken word scene in the Netherlands. Smita has contributed to several publications and poetry books, including Hardop (Loud), the Kaihan Foundation publication CLOSER (2011), FREE HERI HERI (2019), Atlas of Remembrance (2023), Kala Pani (World Museum, 2024), and The Great Caribbean Story Book (Querido, 2024). Her work focuses on themes such as identity, metaphysics, and the Afro- and Indo-Caribbean diaspora within our social domain. Although her writing begins on paper, her lyrics do not always end there. She enjoys working interdisciplinary and collaborates with artists such as Hans Dulfer, Alida Dors, Ira Kip, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Babs Gons, and Richard Kofi, who all work as such. As a Poetic Designer, she uses her texts as a source for audiovisual art installations, voice-overs, music, theater, dance, and film.
IRA KIP
Director
Ira Kip is a global storyteller, theater director, writer, and educator. Born and raised in Amsterdam with Caribbean roots, she studied at the Theater School of Amsterdam and earned her MFA in Directing in New York from the New School for Drama in 2009. In 2010, Ira co-founded the Art & Educational project Art Rules with her twin sister Ayra. Ira's work often explores her Caribbean heritage and community dynamics, with notable plays like "She'Baltimore" (2011), "Shrew Her" (2016), and "Riot or Revolution" (2017). In 2018, together with her sisters Ayra Kip, launched KIP Republic, a creative agency. Ira’s latest play, "KINGS...come home," will premiere in the Netherlands in 2024 and in New York in 2025. She also teaches at various arts universities and contributes to several cultural publications.
