Collective Teder is breaking through, partly thanks to the Delft Fringe Festival, with feminist music theatre productions exploring themes such as sexual clichés and the capitalist advantages of beauty. Two original voices, Clé Delphi (26) and Isa Zwart (26), won a spot in DFF 2026 with the DFF Audience Award 2025. Pretty Privilege will have its world premiere in Delft at the end of May: "We always cram an hour's worth of material into half an hour."
You will find them in almost everyone's kitchen cupboard: boxes of Kellogg's cornflakes. Yes, the ones with the green cockerel on the packaging, answering to the name Cornelius (or Corny), crowing with energy for a fresh morning start. The religious Kellogg brothers, industrialist Will Keith and physician John Harvey, devised bland, healthy breakfast cereals in the early twentieth century as a meal specifically designed to stir no passion whatsoever. According to the conservative doctor, who kept well away from anything related to sex (his children were adopted), masturbation was a source of ailments ranging from mood swings and acne to epilepsy and stunted growth. He therefore promoted the consumption of tasteless maize flakes as part of an anti-masturbation campaign, in order to curb sexual pleasure.
Who still thinks about that over a bowl of cereal? Certainly every audience member who saw Collective Teder's feminist music theatre show at the Delft Fringe Festival last year. In Cornflakes, No Pornflakes, theatre-makers Clé Delphi and Isa Zwart explore all manner of taboos surrounding sexuality and pleasure, from playground gossip to cheeky chat conversations on social media. Through multi-part harmonies, electronic sounds and a generous dose of humour, Delphi and Zwart share their funny, vulnerable stories about the origins of sexual prejudice and misogynistic structures.
"We did not even know there was an audience award to be won in Delft," says Delphi. "We only found out after showing a preview on the opening evening. But people turned out to vote for us en masse. Absolutely brilliant! Just performing was already wonderful given all the lovely reactions. But the Audience Award was the cherry on the cake. We took the Golden Rabbit home with us." And so they return for this 14th edition with the premiere of Pretty Privilege, a show about how physical attractiveness influences your social status in our capitalist society, such as making it easier to get a job or earning more money for the same work.
Inspired by an essay by Dutch sociologist Giselinde Kuipers, Collective Teder takes aim at the dangers of such beauty standards, and at manufactured beauty as the only self-evident form of power seemingly available to women. "And we ask the question of how a capitalist system profits from the insecurity of women, primarily, about their appearance," says Delphi.
"We had actually decided not to make a show this year, having made three in two years," says Zwart. "But the prize tempted us to pick one idea from our carousel of burning concepts. That is how we landed on this one. And we always cram an hour's worth of confronting material into a musical and humorous half hour. It will be painful and pleasurable!"
Delphi and Zwart met during their music theatre training at the ArtEZ Conservatoire in Arnhem. They share a passion for challenging audiences to reflect on urgent themes through self-written songs in Dutch, a touch of cabaret and candid scenes. They have now also been picked up by Station Noord, a collaborative network of major performing arts organisations in the three northern provinces. "We are really hitting our stride now!"
Tamara Griffioen: "Collective Teder manages to approach personal and vulnerable themes in a disarming way, making taboo subjects accessible and discussable through humour. With their strong musicality, wit and genuine storytelling, they effortlessly bring the audience along with their message."
Audience member, Cornflakes, No Pornflakes: "Wow, what a beautiful show! Personal, sensitive, funny and bold! With gorgeous moments of harmony, lovely movement and imagery!"
Joep van Ruiten, culture journalist, Dagblad van het Noorden: "Isa Zwart and Clé Delphi deliver a sparkling show in which two young women discuss their sexual curiosity, confusion and frustration. It results in song, dance, adolescent bewilderment, feminist passion and indignation at the patriarchy, all wrapped up in a polished, forty-minute, visually stimulating lesson!"
Picture: Philine van den Hul
