Cultural journalist since 1996. Worked as theatre critic, columnist and reporter for Algemeen Dagblad, Utrechts Nieuwsblad, Rotterdams Dagblad, Parool and regional newspapers through Associated Press Services. Interviews for TheaterMaker, Theatererkrant Magazine, Ons Erfdeel, Boekman. Podcast maker, likes to experiment with new media. Culture Press is called the brainchild I gave birth to in 2009. Life partner of Suzanne Brink roommate of Edje, Fonzie and Rufus. Search and find me on Mastodon.
"It's all right." In how many songs of the Top 2000 does that phrase appear? Too many to mention. So now the task is to sing all those different "It's all right"'s in the melody in which every audience will recognise them. The four actors in 'Total Eclipse of The Heart' by Theatre Group Kassys fill a thick hour in this way....
In a few thousand years, archaeologists will find a bizarre concrete sculpture in sediment layers at the bottom of the future European Sea. Round, organic shapes, a square box with ready-made chambers, pipes, and a relief in the soil. Totally different from the concrete boxes they found before. Unknowingly, they will rediscover the mystery of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie. The...
Many theatre practitioners secretly beg for the introduction of corporal punishment for schoolchildren with CKV. After all, schoolchildren with CKV are bent on ruining the lives of actors. They are assisted in this by disinterested teachers, who on their nights off are more concerned to please their pupils than the providers of culture. As a compromise, ...
While in the Netherlands hate blog GeenStijl swayed the votes of 400,000 concerned Dutch people to its own anti-European tune, Flanders came up with something new: the citizens' cabinet. A thousand ordinary Flemings spent three months working online and offline on recommendations for culture minister Sven Gatz's cultural policy. In the end, a group of one hundred and fifty citizens was chosen to come up with a text. These were submitted yesterday to the...
Early this year, it still looked like the monumental and striking Main Post Office on Utrecht's Neude would stay closed for good. There was even talk of a sale to a private individual who would build luxury flats in it, thus permanently obscuring the hall of the people, where many a Utrechter once cashed her cash cheques...
Het is nog maar een paar maanden tot Sinterklaas, dus je zou verwachten dat de rijmspieren van de Nederlandse bevolking wel weer op scherp staan. Maar niets blijkt minder waar. Tijdens het Drongo Festival, een manifestatie over meertaligheid in de Utrechtse Jaarbeurs, toonde MC Akwasi dat feilloos aan. Hij past met zijn Nederlandstalige raps goed in de huidige golf van…
Listening to a short poem is sometimes hard work. This was evident during the Night of Poetry, held for the 33rd time on Saturday 19 September. At a poem that ends in brief toneless silence from the poet after four short sentences, the experts separate themselves from the amateurs in the audience. Clap quickly, before the next poem is over. Or.
Eating on stage. That's the standard 'Theatre Dinner', but more exciting. Especially if Shakespeare's Richard III is played during dessert. Toneelgroep Oostpool, the Arnhem-based company that has been going strong in recent years with striking performances, goes one step further again in exploring the ultimate audience experience. Sjim Hendrix, not only a chef but also an artist and...
'Young people can very well decide for themselves where they want to go or not go. And it just so happens that most of the time it is not to the theatre. So what? That will come naturally. Young people make their own choices, and that more often includes a house party than a play. Dragging them inside is counterproductive. And above all, no compulsory book-list performance,...
We had already announced it. This period is all about positive framing by the arts sector. Good news has to be spread, although people don't really know why. After all, there are no shareholders to be kept happy, only concerned art lovers. Anyway. On Wednesday 9 September, NRC journalist Daan van Lent presented the result of an investigation into the...
It is most visible in the performing arts. Recently, a striking number of vacancies for 'business leader' have been appearing in the cultural sector. We put on some ears during the theatre festival, and then you hear something. Nobody wants to respond openly, the interests are too big and the reputations too vulnerable. We therefore sum it up here only roughly...
It is prize season again in the cultural sector and that always brings fuss. Suspicions of rigging, favouritism, bribery. It's part of it, as is everyone doing their best to tell you that the jury chose completely objectively and independently. There is also a Cultural Governance Code for a reason, to prevent the small art world from having too little...
Ola Mafaalani and relatability. They don't go together. On Thursday 3 September 2015, the artistic director of the Noord Nederlands Toneel was allowed to open the theatre season with a speech, the State of the Theatre. She did so in a way we could have actually expected from her, but which nevertheless struck like a bomb. It will hopefully be talked about for years to come...
Robbert Dijkgraaf, the exact scientist with the flux-de-bouche of a great orator, kicked off the traditional Paradiso debate on Sunday 30 August in an extremely cool Paradiso. The Amsterdam pop temple was packed with guests and press, and expectations were high: could the debate really become a conversation this time, instead of the now somewhat threadbare...
There is turmoil in the performing arts. This is because Culture Minister Jet Bussemaker has implemented a couple of motions from the opposition. The minister has also ignored the advice of the Council for Culture for a more balanced budget distribution. So, after much agitation on social media, we received a letter on Friday 28 August 2015. From the festivals, addressed to the minister,...
Gerard de Kleijn, chairman of the Amsterdam Arts Council since 2010, will not complete his second term, which was due to end in 2018. Today, he announced his departure from 1 January 2016. That is two years earlier than intended. It has to do with the Amsterdam city council's choice for a new system of cultural subsidies, in which the role...
Citroën lovers always got warm feelings at the sight of Rotterdam's new central station. Because indeed, that shark's mouth, with or without beach balls in front of it, is somewhat reminiscent of the iconic French car brand's logo. Well. As it turns out, the comparison goes further. Back deep in the 1960s, there was a Citroën pavilion in Monte Carlo in southern France. Citrophile...
So you just keep looking at it. Like looking at a television in a shop window or on a stage, which always catches your attention. But this is not a television. These are marbles. Jaap Roell became fascinated by them. The art journalist and gallery owner has four works by Rob Scholte hanging and can't get enough of them. And frankly neither can we....
Theatre festival Boulevard has a theme. This is new, and actually unusual for a large-scale festival like the one in Den Bosch. After all, how do you find so many performances for those claimed 120,000 spectators that are all about that same theme? The solution is simple: you don't have to. You can also attach a theme to a few appealing performances and a single part...
Whether a TED talk catches on is often largely down to the speaker. This global craze of pimped-up powerpoints could become a global craze because these 'talks' are delivered by heart in front of an audience. So they are theatrical things, these TED Talks, and that makes them interesting to watch even on a screen. Lucas De Man, director,...
Some say there is a tunnel of light you pass through when you die. Could be, there are people with near-death experiences who describe such a thing. Personally, I find the paintings depicting such tunnels of light rather kitschy. Clouds with a scary eye or a man with a beard at the end.... But now sculpture-dance-design artist...
That you wake up at night and there is a full-blooded hipster sitting at the foot of your bed. One of those whose beard has two points of rap, whose hair is in a messy bun and who has a tuft of hair bulging out of his right ear. This pretty much sums up my worst nightmare. Well struck, then, by Lisah makes Roozemoes, to...
Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch, which started on 6 August, has a new boss. This woman, Viktorien van Hulst, had a hard time even before the start of her first festival. Someone had suddenly found a tiny asbestos fibre in a drainpipe at the special new festival site on the Bossche Tramkade, a day before the opening, and so had to...
Ellen Vogel is dead, aged 93, and that is a loss. Calling her 'a monument' is an insult, so I won't do that here. Ellen Vogel was a regal actress, though: dignified and a bit posh. She was also someone who knew how to hide her anger sublimely. I experienced Ms Vogel a couple of times. The first time...
Een betere plek om persfoto’s te vertonen dan een kerk is er eigenlijk niet. Tenminste, zolang het zo’n Nederlandse kerk als die in Naarden is. Witgepleisterde muren, geen afleidende beelden en schilderingen. En dan toch die gewijde sfeer die een beetje hoort bij wat al die winnaars van World Press Photo 2015 uitbeelden: verschrikkelijke verhalen, glorieuze overwinningen en mysteries die…
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