THE BOOK OF
EVERYTHING

The Book of Everything is based on the novel by Dutch writer Guus Kuijer. Nine-year-old Thomas sees things that remain invisible to others — tropical fish in the canals, beauty where others fail to notice it, and even Jesus, with whom he has conversations. But he also sees the violence within his own family. At the centre of the story is his attempt to overcome fear and his growing understanding that, in order to become happy, he must first learn not to be afraid.

What interested me most in the story was the contrast between a life shaped by fear and the possibility of a fuller, freer life beyond it. I built the visual language of the production around this contrast. Thomas’s family lives in a cold, grey and emotionally closed world, dominated by his abusive father and almost without colour, joy or playfulness.

Thomas is the first character to break through this visual order. His costume includes a bright shirt with childlike strokes of colour, as if he had painted it himself. This language of colour gradually appears again in the costume of his friend Louise and reaches its fullest expression in Mrs van Amersfoort. Her costume is an explosion of colour and individuality: she becomes a kind of guide towards the world Thomas longs for — a life shaped by curiosity, joy and imagination rather than fear.

The scenography follows the same visual language, keeping Thomas’s family world grey and muted so that moments of colour and imagination can stand out more strongly within it.