'I like beer' in C'est du Chinois sounds quite nice #dekeuze.

The teachers recite it, a whistle sounds. The audience says it after, like wax in the hands of the five Chinese on stage.
Who the show C'est du Chinois walks in, walks a language class Mandarin inside. An effective language lesson besides, you actually understand the two small families-they have only been in the country for four months but plan to stay-after a while.

There are difficult words that take practice. 'Actor', for example, the father pulls his Chinese mask out of a bag for it. There are also surprisingly easy ones: vitamin, tofu, kung fu. 'Mammá' says the mum as she points to herself. She blows the whistle. 'Mammá' echoes the crowd.
Afterwards, you'll know what 'I love beer' sounds like. And also that it rains every day in Rotterdam. Or cries every day - that part of the lessons goes a bit fast.
With the crying, more personal issues seep through. The daughter is a hippy who doesn't like work and the DVD of language lessons the eldest son tries to sell every day is junk, according to 'Daddy'.
The concept is beautiful in all its simplicity. Learning a language as the basis of a performance. Working together to understand each other, to understand Chinéés, the prototypical 'incomprehensible language' - C'est du Chinois is the French expression for 'I don't understand anything'.
The interaction with the audience makes the play dependent on the viewers' enthusiasm. That too is beautiful, because it gives vulnerability. Watching is playing along.
The Hungarian director Edit Kaldor didn't have to be so subtle at all. After all, learning a language gives power; children in particular know this better than anyone. They teach foreign classmates that 'poo' means 'teacher', or they hammer endlessly on words like 'Scheveningen'. Opportunities abound to C'est du Chinois out of control, not only in terms of language lessons, personal ties could also have caused disruption.
But no. It is a controlled performance from start to finish. The actors are sweet, sometimes endearing and you get a glimpse of their lives, but not so much that it hurts.
The feeling left behind is that the actors and director fell just short of the lessons. That there could have been more in it. A slightly more poignant edge.

But perhapsC'est du Chinois Such a performance that settles in. That you hardly think about it anymore, but suddenly exclaim 'I love theatre' the next time you are in a Chinese restaurant. In Mandarin, of course.

C'est du Chinois Seen: 25 September in Gouvernestraat. Still to be seen there: 26 and 27 September.