What Bert Hana can do, you don't learn at any school: turn your own life into art. #njc10

Wonderful though theatre is. The closing night of the Autumn Collection festival made me realise once again that the best actors do not always make the best performance. Expressiveness depends on more than acting talent and a proven literary text.

I saw two performances, where F.C.Bergman was the towering favourite. The Flemings did not disappoint. Their performance of Pinter's modern classic The Homecoming even awoke in me memories of the first repertoire steps of De Trust, the collective of recent graduates that would grow into a shining beacon in the darkened theatre system of the 1990s.

I saw flair, I saw a mountain of acting talent, the scenography had undeniable rhythm and musicality, and yet I felt too little touched. After the second performance that evening, Papadag - a slide show, I knew what I had missed: vulnerability. At F.C. Bergman, the choice was not for content that had to do with the players themselves, but for a text that challenged playwriting. And so you got a performance with the character of demonstration: this is how you strip Pinter of his realistic stage directions, this is how you turn 1960s absurdism into contemporary rock 'n' roll.

Daddy Day- a slide show is almost anti-theatre. Performer, deviser and inspecient Bert Hana balances dangerously on the border of too clumsy, too corny, too sentimental. But every time he threatens to fall through, he comes up with a twist that provides an unexpected vista. What starts as a sketch about a slide show of holiday snapshots in which only the performer himself is interested, ends in a poignant confession about broken family happiness.

To some extent, Papadag is more Pinter than FC Bergman's performance. To the Englishman's famously evocative pauses, the silences that should speak volumes, the Flemish hardly do anything. Bert Hana does play cunningly with silence. If he leaves one slide of a cosy camping holiday in IJmuiden just a little longer than the other, you start to wonder why. The things that are not said, but suggested, are like puzzle pieces that form a story in your mind that is all too recognisable to many. Wonderful though that theatre is, I started it. You don't need an education for Bert Hana's acting. What he can do, you don't learn at any school: turning your own life into art.

Seen: Final night Saturday 30 October Autumn Collection Theatre Kikker.