Meppelgate! (2): Living in Meppel is also a choice.

You could wait for it. Meppelgate.

Marieke Heebink, top actress with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, had the audacity to say in the newspaper that she is happy to be in a sold-out 'Angels in America' in New York. "Thank God I don't have to go to Meppel" she says. Aj. Aj. How dare she!

This is guaranteed to generate angry reactions. And not just from Meppel.  While I bet the people of Meppel would also really like a trip to New York. The Volkskrant posted a letter from Peter 't Hoen from Koudum (Zuid- West Friesland). He reports that he recently five hours travelled for the Amsterdam-only 'Bride in the Morning' by TA-2/Frascati Productions.

Nationwide distribution and touring has been a big thing in the Netherlands for decades. And yes, if you live in Meppel, or Koudum, or Heerlen, or Middelburg, it is not reasonable and realistic to have to travel to the Randstad every time for your much-needed portion of culture. My weekly portion of culture consumption would plummet dramatically. And being at the theatre earlier to waiting lists for something special I would never do at all.

After all, how often do you have time and money to travel five hours for that one play? Of course, you can say 'actors have chosen that profession and this is part of it.' But travelling to Koudum also costs them (and all those people behind the scenes) five hours and even much more than that. Because they also have to prepare, change, finish. Playing in the province is more than 'turn up and do your thing'. On the other hand, how cool is it to be able to reach fans all over the Netherlands, and not just your friends and colleagues in Amsterdam?

I advocate that it should come from both sides.

Large companies often struggle to cast old roles beautifully. So should you always have a fit forty-year-old play King Lear? After all, older actors are no longer physically willing to travel 80 times in the Netherlands. Door-to-door transport and hotel accommodation have long since been cut back. Therefore, they prefer to opt for shows that are 4 weeks at the La Mar Theatre in Amsterdam, or a fine lunch performance at theatre Bellevue, again in Amsterdam. Within walking distance of their quarters acquired 50 years ago in the capital, which were affordable back then. And blame them? I often work within walking distance of my home.

Fact: star actors are leaving big companies to do more film and television and thus have more time for a private life.

Actors still sometimes want to end up in the marital sphere with actresses and vice versa. So that they are then also married to them. (Stefan de Walle and Esther Scheldwacht, Anniek Pheiffer and René van Zinnicq Bergmann, Fedja van Huet and Karina Smulders, Carine Crutzen and Nico de Vries and so on and so forth. Oh yes, and so on and so forth! ) Suppose they are your parents? Both away from home an average of 80 times a year. Often leaving in the afternoon because of travel time and traffic jams. Returning home deep into the night . Writer Annemarie Oster (the daughter of) may well have been dropped off as a child in the 1950s with a loving foster family so that father Oster and mother Van der Moer could devote themselves indefinitely to the performing arts. Those times are over. Actors may just be buried in the graveyard these days, and they might just want to cut the meat at six o'clock too?

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It has to come from both sides. It cannot and should not be the case that wonderful theatre does not get outside the periphery. Nor can it be the case that a theatre lover never has to get on the train or by car. I find the argument that actors themselves choose to be actors just as tenable as that the inhabitants of Meppel choose to live in Meppel.

When 'Angels in America' toured nationwide, the halls were half-full at the time. That's a different experience from the sold-out halls last week in New York. But there is a third way, a real win-win scenario. Now, if the residents of Meppel, Emmen or Almelo all go to Zwolle, they don't have to travel to Amsterdam and the actors travel less and play to a full house.

If it comes from both sides, it will work out.