Topicality is back in the Dutch acting scene for a while, and that is quite nice. De Verleiders, once started as a one-off play about fraudulent bosses by George van Houts, is now growing into a voluminous series. On TV, we have the series De Fractie, which manages to rebroadcast the news of the day every episode. And, of course, we have Mugmetdegoudentand, though it is nothing new for that company, which will soon celebrate its 30th anniversary. The Mug (for friends) has always held current affairs in high regard, though always one that stuck more to the personal, then sought universal values in it.
As close to political reality as the Mug is now with 'Art Heart', the people who are also partly responsible for TV successes like Deer Camp, TV7 and - in part - Gooische Vrouwen, were rarely there. Art Heart is a series of three cabaretesque one-acts, each of which is a variation on an important event from the recent past. In doing so, they all start from the question: what if? What if Rijksmuseum director Wim Pijbes had reacted differently to the Cyclists' Union? What if the Concertgebouw Orchestra had thought differently about performing on King's Day? And what if Prime Minister Rutte had had an idea about art?
Interesting questions, providing fun thought experiments. The texts are humorously penned by relatively young author Nathan Vecht, who also writes for Koefnoen. The actors do some very good impersonations, and are as skilled in them as the people from the VARA Saturday night cabaret, or Koefnoen.
Yet it is unfortunate that the show as a whole does not really rise above that level of quick and skillful television entertainment. This is mainly due to the text, which leaves little to the imagination. Then, as an actor, you don't have much else to do but speak it as well as you can, and as a director you can't do much more than steer it in the best possible direction. As a director, Lineke Rijxman manages to allow a few moments that are very theatrical, such as a wonderfully tense silence that actor Guy Clemens drops when he plays Mariss Janssons, the Concertgebouw Orchestra's chief conductor plagued by hardcore commitments.
Without more quality, then, this Mug, but the writing really should be better. It would be nice if it didn't have to be about that one nice twist in the story, but surprises in the sentences themselves. Moments of beauty that make you remember the evening longer than the train ride home. So Nathan Vecht just needs a lot more practice. Until he becomes at least as good as Joan Nederlof, founder of the Mug.
Until he can really make the journey from the TV in the warm living room to the theatre worthwhile.
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