Drama awards party in year of gloom

It had to be a party, because there has been enough shouting and complaining and it doesn't help anything anyway. After a year in which the theatre sector in particular felt the hard hand of Mark Ruttes happy crisis policy, awards had to be handed out again. So the already not-so-huge crème de la crème of the Dutch theatre world gathered again for the gala at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. It was a valiant attempt at optimism, while in the corridors also revealed for a while that it is not cake and egg within the industry.

There is always some fuss about who should or should not win. For years, for instance, it was a regular ritual among our top actresses to sigh that the 'Theo d'Or, the prize for the best leading role, would surely go to Ariane Schluter again. Now Ms Schluter has indeed won the gold plaque quite often, but to declare her the Serena Williams of patriotic theatre is going a bit far. We know enough to once again make those who object wait for next year, when they might get the award they don't value now. And then be happy.

But then we saw this sigh come along on facebook, posted on the wall of one of the judges.

 

We have briefly camouflaged the name of the complaining actor in question, but he does stand for something. What this gentleman is referring to is the nomination and eventual awarding of the Lois d'Or (the prize for the best male lead) to actor Hein van der Heijden for, in this case, two roles, one of which is therefore strictly speaking not a lead role.

No complaints about his leading role in Vincent and Theo about Vincent van Gogh, but just that role was apparently not enough, so it was made into a kind of oeuvre prize. And rightly so. Hein van der Heiden, whom we therefore wholeheartedly award because he is a fantastic actor who has stood in the shadows for too long, played in the other performance for which he was nominated, Anton Chekhov's 'Oom Wanja', namely not the title role, but that of the great antagonist of the title role.

So the fact that Pierre Bokma did not get a nomination for that title role is something of a statement. From the jury. So Bokma was apparently deemed more appropriate by that jury as supporting actor Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream by Het Nationale Toneel. He received a nomination for that, as best supporting actor. Probably very good too, but it's still strange. And besides, Bokma did not win, but that supporting actor award went to the excellent Gijs Naber.

We can imagine that this kind of thing taints the festivities, but after a week everything is forgotten, and those prizes, they won't take them away from people anymore. The ever flamboyant Adelheid Roosen made that clear afterwards.

And for those who were not there on twitter either: here is the report in tweets.