Reinout Bussemaker portrays the controversial J.P. Coen in new Alum performance "This is Ours"

Utrecht - Actor Reinout Bussemaker will portray the role of J.P. Coen in theatre group Aluin's new proposition "Dit is van Ons" from December. This zeitgeist comedy takes a critical look at the legacy of J.P. Coen, a historical figure that evokes both admiration and condemnation.

Reinout Bussemaker is known from various television (The 12 of Oldenheim, The Prey, Disaster Flight) and theatre roles. Bussemaker takes on the role of J.P. Coen, a very illustrious figure from the history of the V.O.C. Not everyone's name immediately rings a bell, but everyone knows the Coen tunnel. There are also seven J.P. Coen streets in the Netherlands, two J.P. Coen lanes, one J.P. Coenhof, nine J.P. Coen schools, a J.P. Coen scouting group, a J.P. Coen holding, a Coen harbour, two Coen tunnels and a prominent statue in Hoorn. But who was this historical figure from the 17th century?

About the show 

This is ours is a hilarious and harrowing con- frontation with a controversial ancestor and the beginning of a series of dark pages in our history.

Activist Just asks herself the question; how did a small country like the Netherlands become so prosperous? She takes matters into her own hands and travels to the 17th century to meet Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Just challenges J.P. Coen to justify himself and his actions in the 21st century. Coen must fend for himself in a world that has come to think differently about resources, property, profits and human rights. Does J.P. Coen know how to hold his own in today's cancel society?

Theatre Group Alum knows how to turn this sweeping mate- ry into a zeitgeist comedy. With this brand-new text, they make the audience look into the mirror of the past: Should you see it in its time? Or is that the greatest doodle imaginable?

About Alum 

Theatre group Aluin has been making hel- der and concrete text theatre about primal stories for over 32 years. Their most recent performance Ik zeg toch sorry was selected for the Nederlands Theaterfesti- val. About the text by writer Erik Snel, the jury wrote: "There is a lot of room in the text for the sharp bitte- re of the wrongs in our colonial past."