‘Never played the sisters myself’
Last week, actress Elsje de Wijn passed away. For many Dutch theatre lovers and makers, she was a regular feature in performances on the ‘smaller’ theatre circuit. 21 years ago, in 2005, I spoke to Elsje de Wijn, Trudy de Jong and Els Ingeborg Smits about their careers, which were similar. Of them, only Trudy de Jong is still alive.
Read below the interview I conducted with in 2005, written for the regional newspapers of the Netherlands (Associated Press Service)
Besides ‘To be or not to be’, they are the most famous words in theatre: ‘To Moscow, To Moscow...’. The concluding words of Chkhov's classic Three Sisters are the title of a play Elmer Schönberger wrote for three actresses who never played the ‘Sisters’ themselves: Els Ingeborg Smits, Elsje de Wijn and Trudy de Jong.
(GPD 10-2-2005) Trudy de Jong is going to do it. A commercial. ”But made by filmmaker André van Duuren.” Els Ingeborg Smits still couldn't get such a thing over her heart, but respects the decision of her friend and colleague: "As long as you don't become a bagman like Jan Mulder." Elsje de Wijn is silent, as she has always been the quietest this evening.
They meet in the upstairs bar of Café De Blincker, the café of theatre Frascati in Amsterdam's theatre street De Nes. It is a fraught place for the three actresses who experienced their most intense evenings in this very place, deep in the 1980s. Trudy de Jong: ”Oooo, how we laughed here too!” Els Ingeborg Smits and Elsje de Wijn agree wholeheartedly: "And we sat and rehearsed and drank and laughed and ... how hard we worked here!"
Els: ”We were always here very late, and then they closed and we were always allowed to stay here, and then Annet Malherbe would stand behind the bar. Then Sjaak, the previous owner of the Blincker, would sit in his little office gloating about whether it was all going well...” Trudy: ,,But I can still see us walking around here before it opened. Making sure everything was going well. Whether the changing rooms had the right chairs."
Els: ”How much of an attitude we had, us."
The walls of the upstairs bar are still papered with the posters of the plays in which they played - together or separately - at Toneelgroep Baal: Kalldewey Farce, The Ride across Lake Constance, Dybbuk, Leedvermaak. In the early 1980s, theatre flourished mainly in smaller venues like Frascati. It was also at that time that city theatres in the Netherlands specially set up smaller theatres for companies like Toneelgroep Baal, which catered to the increased desire of young audiences for smaller-scale and more involved theatre. The big companies like Publiekstheater, Toneelgroep Theater and Haagsche Comedie struggled to survive in the renewed theatre world, which had been forced into revolutionary changes by tomato-throwing drama students in 1968.
Els Ingeborg Smits (60), Elsje de Wijn (61) and Trudy de Jong (56) are the most notable actresses of the period. During the 20 years, since the early ’70s, that the Frascati players set the tone in Dutch theatre, they featured in almost every play. With the demise of Baal and the hard times Strijards’ company Art & Pro fell into, the actresses became homeless. They had lost their ‘family’.
Els Ingeborg Smits: ,,It's the tragedy of getting older. We still are, actually. Such a small club. We are still ‘t Barre land, we are still Dood Paard, we are still Baal, and we are still Frans Strijards. We have always played, been in unsuccessful productions, also in wonderful productions, but that whole clear thing that was there in the seventies and eighties, that is no longer there. Those companies, which were working together as a family, they are no longer there.”
But more has disappeared. Theatre directors with heart for the business, for example. Elsje de Wijn: ”Some theatre directors are out of touch with the theatre world. They only look at how they can fill their auditoriums as easily as possible, and they do so with big names."
Els: ”You see those theatre directors thinking: well, three ladies who seem to have been good in the past, a writer we haven't heard of very often, an unknown play, and it also seems to have something to do with Chekhov, who was that anyway?"
They date from a time when theatre was about content. Appearance didn't really matter; it was about what you had to say. A bit of a shame, though. Els: ,,Because of TV, everyone thinks he has something to say if he can nicely imitate Michael Jackson. We looked up to the actors of the Dutch Comedy enormously.”
Elsje: ”There is now a hype to see young actresses as models.” Trudy: ,,There is such a Hollywood atmosphere around it. That wasn't in our time. but of course I would have loved to be in the glossies with a Gucci shoot too.” Els: "That's getting old, Trui. We were just tuttier."
Where have the good times gone? This bitter observation also turns out to be exactly why they are now touring together. Els Ingeborg Smits came up with the play three years ago: ,,I was walking along the beach one day in 2002 and I was ‘puzzled’ and I thought, ‘damn, why couldn't I play The Three Sisters?” But I'm already too old and I'm not famous either.” Then she thought that was actually very fitting for her and her friends: "Elsje is Olga, the quiet one. I'm Masja, the slutty one, and Trudy is Irina, the youngest. I called them up, just like that, and said: shall we do that?"
Elsje: ”And then we also thought: OK, the three sisters. But what would have happened if they did go to Moscow?"
Els: , ”At first we asked Judith Herzberg, but she preferred to do a sequel to Leedvermaak and Rijgdraad. She couldn't stop playing the characters in those plays. On the contrary, we didn't want to play Dove, Lea and Reed."
Eventually they ended up with Elmer Schönberger, the husband of Els Ingeborg Smits. He came up with the idea of making it three actresses who had once played the three sisters, and who now wanted to flame one more time. But differently than before. Before, when every performance at Baal or Art & Pro was rehearsed on the cutting edge. Or when once, at the utterly unsuccessful tour of The Suicide Squad in 1981, they treated the audience to an evening of ‘Playing Killer’. Els: ”So that you wink unnoticed and then someone drops dead.” Trudy: ”And Kitty (Courbois) who really turned that into a death scene.” Els: ”She could handle that rather big, that Kitty." Elsje: , "That was in Roosendaal, in 1981." Trudy: , "But we really only did it once. After that, never again."
Now, with Matthijs Rümke as director, they experience a totally different rehearsal process. Els Ingeborg Smits recently spoke to Carel Alphenaar, theatre expert and dramaturge of this production: ‘He said: ’You'll see that it's also good for Matthijs to work with three women with a history.” And that's right. Finally, we bring something to the table."
To Moscow, To Moscow. Playing period: 17-02 to 26-05-05. To be seen in over 50 theatres in the Netherlands. Actor: Trudy de Jong, Elsje de Wijn, Els Ingeborg Smits. Directed by Matthijs Rümke. Text: Elmer Schönberger. Dramaturgy: Carel Alphenaar. Set design: Rieks Swarte. Costume design: Carly Everaert. Information: www.bostheaterproducties.nl
Bioots:
Elsje de Wijn (1944)
Toneelschool Amsterdam, exam 1967
Played at Toneelgroep Centrum, the musical Met Man en Muis, then at Toneelgroep Baal. Then freelancer, including with Art & Pro, ro theatre, Bellevue and Het Nationale Toneel.
Els Ingeborg Smits (1944)
Toneelschool Amsterdam, exam 1969
Played with Wim Sonneveld, Het Amsterdams Toneel and Instituut Kassies. From 1972 to 1984, she was associated with Toneelgroep Baal. Then freelance. Played a.o. with Art & Pro, Nationale Toneel (Heldenplatz) and Blauwe Maandag Compagnie (Ten oorlog). Performed several remarkable duets with actor Cas Enklaar (Bas and Elze since 1997).
Trudy de Jong (1949)
Toneelschool Amsterdam, Examination 1971
Played at Toneelgroep Centrum, The Rocky Horrorshow, Toneelgroep Baal and Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Then as a freelancer with Art & Pro. Since then in various productions, including The Vagina Monologues.
Baal (1972 - 1986)
Company founded by director Leonard Frank. Starting in 1972 as a regular performer at Amsterdam's Shaffy theatre (Felix Meritis), it became house company of Theater Frascati in 1981. The company specialised in plays by German writers such as Peter Handke, Botho Strauss and Thomas Bernhard. In 1982, Baal staged the legendary play Leedvermaak, based on a text by Judith Herzberg, in which the Netherlands' unprocessed war past was brought to the stage for the first time. In 1988, the company was disbanded and its budget, along with that of Toneelgroep Centrum and Het Publiekstheater, was spent on founding Toneelgroep Amsterdam.
Art & Pro (1980 - 2000)
Company of playwright and director Frans Strijards. Through his specific writing style and special conception of directing, Frans Strijards had a great influence on Dutch theatre. His 1986 play ‘Hensbergen’ can be seen as the final reckoning with theatre after ‘Action Tomato’. Strijards' 1987 version of Chekhov's Cherry Garden is legendary. Art & Pro merged with Toneelgroep De Trust into the Theatercompagnie in 2000.
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