How does a young woman discover her sexuality? And who gets to tell that story? Director Silke van Kamp is fascinated by Nabokov’s scandalous 1955 novel Lolita, in which a young woman’s journey of sexual fantasies and longing is taken away from her. 

For decades, Lolita has been portrayed as a romanticised object of desire, with countless versions of her story. After 70 years, Silke radically turns Nabokov’s literary classic inside out and in F*CK LOLITA reshapes the story from the female perspective. Lolita steps out of the cage of desire object and reclaims her story and body. Not as a victim of abuse, but as someone who fights free from the grip of the male gaze. 

With a text by Annet Bremen, nominated for the Toneelschrijfprijs 2023, based on an idea by Silke van Kamp, F*CK LOLITA creates a capricious, sensuous and complex duet between Lolita and Humbert Humbert. Lolita reclaims her artwork: about herself, as herself.

Jury Report

“The overwhelming stage adaptation that writer Annet Bremen and director Silke van Kamp made of Nabokov's Lolita is about the power of whoever gets to speak.”