Rebellion and resignation hand in hand during beautiful opening weekend The International Choice at Rotterdam Theatre #hechoice

Opinion pollsters take note:

"People give the moderate answer to most questions they are asked in life. The characters in 'This is not a love story' are very ordinary, very average. In that, it clicks between those two. It's an ending where you feel a huge satisfaction."

Enthusiasm prevails after the opening weekend of The International Choice of the Rotterdam Schouwburg, the festival that under the wings of outgoing programmer Annemie Vanackere has become a benchmark of modern theatre worldwide. Moreover, this edition opened surprisingly briskly. We can at least say that with the performance 'Ich Schau dir in die Augen' by the Volksbühne from Berlin, and the dance/text/music performance 'This is not a love story' by Gunilla Heilborn from Sweden, which was given to our reviewer Maarten Baanders the opening quote of this article elicited.

Reviewer Simon van den Berg was equally happy from the production of the Volksbühne:

"Pollesch is a typical exponent of the 'applied theatre science' course in Giessen, where theatre is viewed and practised from a theoretical angle. It sometimes produces gort-dry, highly intellectual exercises, with theatre texts based on sociological writings mixed with eighteenth-century boulevard comedies, but sometimes also sparklingly sharp and idea-rich theatre-over-theatre. Ich schau dir in die Augen... is an eminent example of the latter."

A day before the official opening, reviewer Wijbrand Schaap was given a course on revolt by Flemish theatre-maker Ruud Gielens. Together with an Egyptian colleague and five dancers from Cairo, he reacted to the 25 January 2011 uprising in Egypt, which after a protracted occupation and siege of Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital eventually led to the fall of dictator Mubarak. He also considers this performance, although less soothing than the other two on this opening weekend, to be 'Typical International Choice‘:

"abrasive, confrontational and slightly disturbing"

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