What happens when research on drugs and organised crime leaves the academic world and enters the theatre?
DOPE is a new theatre and dance production developed together with FORT-PORT, an NWO financed research project led by Professor Karin van Wingerde from Erasmus School of Law in collaboration with TU Delft and Utrecht University. FORT-PORT researchers study how cocaine trafficking, human smuggling and organised crime affect the people of Rotterdam.
But DOPE is also an exploration of how we communicate research
Instead of presenting the research through a scientific article, lecture or conference presentation, the research has been translated into theatre and dance. And during the national tour, our researchers from Erasmus University Rotterdam and TU Delft will take to the stage to perform artistic interpretations of their own research, in what are called Container Stories (as in shipping containers in the Port of Rotterdam).
It is an unusual way of communicating science. And that is exactly the point.
Reaching audiences outside academia does not always mean finding a simpler way to explain a scientific paper. Sometimes it means finding an entirely different form. Dance, theatre, music and other creative approaches can open up research to people who might never read an academic article or attend a research seminar, while also offering existing audiences a different way of seeing and thinking about a complex issue.
Expand your research communication toolkit
For researchers interested in communicating their work beyond academia, DOPE offers a chance to see this approach in action and to experience what can happen when research and artistic practice meet.
The national tour starts on 1 October 2026 at Theater Zuidplein in Rotterdam and will visit theatres across the Netherlands until December. The performance is in Dutch.
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