Dutch Theatre Festival selection: a splendid list that makes no sense at all

A splendid list. The Dutch Theatre Festival's official jury selection cannot be described any other way. Neatly divided into large- and small-room productions, with a mime and a location production as well. At the same time, the selection makes no sense at all.

Because yes, the Theatre Festival admits it looks mainly at drama. And after all, aren't there all kinds of awards for opera, youth theatre, dance, cabaret and musical and you name it - in addition to all those other theatre awards? But those who present themselves to the outside world with the terms Dutch and Theatre and speak of "the best performances of the past season" should broaden their view.

After all, aren't opera and dance theatre? Don't youth count? Doesn't the average cabaret performer wipe out virtually every theatre company in terms of occupancy? And why this emphasis on productions from the subsidised circuit? Dutch theatre has much more to offer than this shortlist of once again all excellent performances.

Indeed, from this list, the image irrevocably emerges that Dutch theatre consists of theatre for a highly educated and mainly cream-white audience. A glance at the programming of any theatre, however, shows that theatre constitutes a small part of the offer, which, moreover, is getting smaller.

Awards for all kinds of genres are plentiful. Come that one award that truly does justice to all forms of theatre. Theatre parties for the insiders we already have more than enough. Everyone knows each other there by now. But a festival that truly represents the colourful diversity of Dutch theatre with the best performances of the past season is more than welcome and could easily lead to interesting crossovers and a new audience.