Wopke Hoekstra, would-be boss of the Netherlands, stood last week on the ice of an ice rink that was closed to all but Sven Kramer. Because of Corona. The CDA frontman received a justified storm of criticism. After Grapperhaus, the country's second top executive who thinks his own rules only apply to others.
Last week, Laura van Dolron, a stand-up philosopher whom I hold in high esteem, played a couple of performances for two professionals at Frascati. The newspapers - which were invited to it - wrote enthusiastically about it. It was possible, I read in the Volkskrant, because it fits exactly within the rules of what can and cannot be done, in terms of contact between professionals.
Why does this cut me so hard? Is it jealousy? Is it the FOMO that now causes me to wish I could have been there to share in this exclusive little thing? Maybe. But harder it stings me that this is described by colleagues as a beautiful phenomenon of theatre that pushes the edges.
Solidarity
Let me say first: from Laura, I can imagine. She wants to play however and wherever she can, so if she can bend the rules a tiny bit to that end: smart. That others don't come up with that. Solidary it is not, of course. Playing in front of an audience while thousands of colleagues are stranded. But that also makes it a bit - if not entirely - a scale model of what Wopke did in election turmoil: getting a press moment on an ice rink that many people yearn for, especially now that the weather gods have shown that they would rather do thirty degrees above zero, than thirty degrees below zero.
Do I blame journalistic colleagues? Certainly I do. I don't know if press had been invited for Wopke, but Laura had certainly invited press. The colleagues immediately inserted themselves into their role as reviewers, because that is what you do when you are invited to a theatre. Colleagues did the same when they were invited to performances that could only be seen by at most 200 or so spectators throughout the play. Not a word about the absurdity of that fact.
Three-star meal
How many people do you exclude with that? Of course it is the job of us journalists to inform the public about unique events, and that is especially true of art events. But those 30-person performances mean nothing to the readership because the chance - or the will - to be there is virtually nil. Let alone a two-person show. Then you're still the travel journalist in a full-service tropical resort indulging in the three-star meals the organisers arranged for you, which your reader will never taste.
I think the worst result is that with such actions, the journalist makes himself completely exclusive, or agrees to be involved in an exclusive. Which readers get nothing out of, because the chance of experiencing the same is excluded.
Saint Jutte
Perhaps, as compensation, Laura van Dolron could do a compensation performance, for all the fellow performers and audience members who couldn't be there now. Maybe set a date? When we, like the cows, can dance again?
We already have a spacious enough venue: Thialf.
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