Room Service: work-in-progress

In a dilapidated luxury hotel in Marrakech, a woman clings desperately to the glamour of the 1970s. She has been living in the same room for almost fifty years. Every evening she takes her seat at the same little table, whilst the pianist plays the same nostalgic melodies. Rituals keep her world turning. Until her hands falter, her feet stumble, and even the hotel seems to resist.

Room Service takes its cue from the story of creator Manou Selhorst’s grandmother. Through text, music, imagery, flamenco dance and pulsating rhythms, she explores how nostalgia is kept alive through repetition. But also how a break in that rhythm can develop into physical resistance. Who really keeps this world turning? Who is allowed to claim a place and a past for themselves? And can the poetry of faded glory outweigh its influence on the present?

This preview is a work-in-progress of the production set to premiere in November 2027 at Cultuurhuis de Warande. Here, Manou specifically explores the restaurant setting as a theatrical space: a place where service, time, routine and expectation constantly interact.

Room Service (WIP) is a culinary experience. For this special evening, Restaurant Madonna is creating a menu that brings the world of the performance right onto the plate. In this way, watching, listening and tasting become part of a single sensory experience.