Freddie: A Girl Tells the True Story of the Netherlands' Youngest Resistance Fighter

Freddie: A Girl, presented by Taffety Punk Theatre Company, tells the story of the Oversteegen sisters, who joined the Dutch Resistance at 17 and 15 years old during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Truus and Freddie Oversteegen were entrusted with increasingly high-risk missions as the girls grew to become spies, saboteurs, and assassins. Soon thereafter, another young woman, Hannie Schaft, joined the resistance and the three became fast friends, and a formidable team against their enemies. The story of their staggering bravery against impossible odds inspires all who hear it.

Taffety Punk company member and playwright Kelsey Mesa, who penned 2023's award winning La Salpêtriere, takes on the story of these brave girls by focusing on the youngest: Freddie Oversteegen. In the play we follow Freddie's journey from wide-eyed novice to experienced saboteur and assassin, a journey so harrowing no teenager should be burdened with it. But her country had been invaded by bloodthirsty criminals. She and her sister were eager to make a difference in the war.

Tia Shearer Bassett, who plays young Freddie, extols the play as "an artful mix of war story, spy adventure, and coming-of-age." The girls were trained to spy on potential targets. They were given costumes and false identities. One of the sisters might help usher refugees to new locations while the other set bombs along a militarily strategic train track. Free of suspicion, as men routinely underestimate girls, they would ride their bicycles around Nazi agents and strongholds while gathering critical information. It was astride these bicycles that the girls would identify an enemy, shoot, and ride away. Mesa says that after first hearing about the Oversteegen sisters, she was "struck simultaneously by the capacity for courage that these young women had and the horror of needing to ask this of them."

There were many triumphs for the sisters, but just as many tragedies. The play does not shy away from the consequences of war. The war robbed these girls of an innocent youth. The war twisted their personal relationships into webs of misgiving. The war stole from them loved ones and dear friends, most famously Hannie Schaft who was executed in a Nazi prison just two weeks before the war ended. The war haunted the sisters for the rest of their lives. And this is where Mesa's play takes an unexpected turn, bringing us into the home of an older, more mature Freddie who has lived her life in the wake of World War II. She was the youngest of combatants and survives as best she can beset by heartbreaking memories and grief. She says every person she killed is still with her.

Mesa explains where her research led her, saying, "I was also moved by how this experience affected Truus but especially Freddie for the remainder of her life. Courage is not without cost. How do we go into a situation needing to fight and knowing there will be consequences, but doing it anyway?"

Company member Tonya Beckman, who plays the older Freddie, propounds further: "One of the things that makes this piece so unique and beautiful is that it grapples with the price of bravery. Heroism does not come without a cost, especially to the heroes. But the play also celebrates their resiliency, and I really love that." Beckman adds, "I've gone into work on this piece often thinking of the last line from Taffety Punk's production of Beowulf, a Retelling: 'monsters are real, and they can be beaten.' And that's very true. But the next question, at least for me is, 'But who will heal the hero?'"

Kelsey Mesa says, "The questions I find myself returning to again and again when I think of the Oversteegen sisters are: how did we get to a place where we needed to ask them to do these things? And how can I cultivate that courage in myself, so we never need to ask that of young people again?"

Guest artist Hana Clarice plays Hannie Schaft, and Taffety Punk newcomer Sadie O'Conor plays older sister Truus Oversteegen. Company member Dan Crane plays a rotating set of characters, Frans Van der Wiel, the leader of the Dutch resistance, among them.

Taffety Punk Theatre Company as always is committed to making the best possible theatre for the best possible price. Tickets for this show will not exceed $20. Seats are general admission.

Freddie: A Girl runs August 27 through September 19, 2026 at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.