The hardest part of going back to work after the summer holidays are the holiday stories from colleagues. Or from yourself. That fantastic view, that unique campsite, that beautiful beach, that restaurant where you got the best food in the world for no money, that indigenous people you visited first with your tour bus. That moment of climate shame that you managed to put off until next year, because the kids.
For a moment I was afraid that Eric de Vroedt, artistic director of The National Theatre, would regale us with his account of a trip to Indonesia in such a way, but His State of the Theatre at the opening of the annual Theatre Festival turned out differently. Though it did start as a holiday story.
Likeminds and the codes
Some, including myself, had still expected that that celebratory speech in which an Important Figure From The Sector takes stock would have been updated at the last minute. After all, that Thursday morning was an explosive piece appeared in NRC On malpractice at Likeminds.
That development institution appears to have been run for years by a founder who has been less than scrupulous about fair practice and #metoo, while the Supervisory Board, consisting of the same man for years, appears to have flouted the cultural governance code. Since this now seems to happen so often in the arts sector that one can no longer speak of 'incidents', a fiery speech by Eric de Vroedt would have been welcome. He did not, perhaps partly because on the specialist website Theatererkrant all was well when it was announced that he had been awarded the honour of The State.
Not letting diversity degenerate
Yet De Vroedt's argument, carefully written as we have come to expect from him, did build up in such a way that he managed to keep the tension in. De Vroedt had a different plan, at least as exciting. He attacked the intense division within the community of Dutch East Indies people, to which he himself belongs. Fully in line with the latest insights on diversity and inclusion, his State of the Theatre resulted in an appeal not to let the pursuit of diversity degenerate into an island kingdom full of minorities fighting each other to the death.
"As far as I am concerned, that is the challenge for the coming years: to provide space for oppressed perspectives but also to incorporate them in larger narratives about and for the whole of society. Because a healthy society simply cannot exist without connecting stories. Without falling into the mere white gaze or sweet Benneton theatre. Creating stories in which all those new speakers are celebrated, but also allowed to clash internally and with each other. In which those views do not retreat safely into their own biotope but continually seek each other out, probe, engage."
"AND: in which they not only fight for their gender, faith or colour but, above all, question The System of which we, all of us, are a part. On stage, let's talk about social inequality a little more often. About class. About eroding institutions and manipulative multinationals. About Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agro."
Catchy indo rock
There is little to add to these worthy words. Or it must be that with his State of the Theatre, De Vroedt did another thing that I would like to put a sturdy amp to: music. De Vroedt had invited a band that performed exceptionally catchy indo rock. He had been bowled over by their music on the way to a rehearsal, and it has to be said, Djanger by Nusantara Beat is a delightful song. After De Vroedt's speech, the band performed live, and it was a feast.
That performance again made me extra aware of how stupid it really is that we have instituted all these partitions between genres. De Vroedt referred to it. Fortunately, more and more people realise that it is idiotic that we have theatre alongside dance and music and that these often have separate venues, their own audiences and critics.
All genres please together
All my life, I have longed for theatre that has the power of pop music and the dynamism of dance. 'But that's what the musical is for, isn't it?', I hear you say. But no, because musical is also a separate genre with its own rules, style and laws.
It would be nice, if in addition to preventing bubbles in which every minority feels safe, but is actually unsafe, we also rethink genres and styles.
Back to roots in Africa, Greece and India. A once-in-a-lifetime Nigerian höken at Shakespeare with Bollywood dancing. Directed by Eric de Vroedt.
I will definitely come and watch.
Read the State of Theatre here:
The-State-of-Theatre-2023-NTF-by-Eric-de-Vroedt-def.-version-1
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