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.
She is a 'stand-up philosopher'. With that self-coined term, she created a new form of theatre, halfway between cabaret, a lecture and theatre. She plays with her own role, deploys actors as if they were puppets, but ultimately turns out to be their plaything, as good as that of fate. In short: Laura van Dolron is a case apart. She makes...
I am not a connoisseur of the performance practice of Bach's St John Passion and know that other piece, the St Matthew Passion, mainly from a few TV excerpts and far-flung arrangements like the one by Platel's Pitié. So don't expect me to pass judgment on how good the version, which was seen and heard at the Concertgebouw on 5 April 2011, was, comparatively...
We were deep in Amsterdam's canal belt for a while. After all, prominent resident of this city Rudi Fuchs was presented with a new booklet, written by himself together in the pages of De Groene Amsterdammer. This weekly magazine, by all accounts the oldest in the country, hosts the art connoisseur and former museum director in its pages. On it, he stomach writing about artworks that...
After the cry, now the official piece. With a fitting, tad Den Uyl/Van Agt-like title: 'Less where it can be done, better where it must be done.' But let's not laugh too hard. It is quite brave what they have done. Gitta Luyten, Marianne Versteegh, Joke Hubert, Henk Scholten, Siebe Weide and Ben Holvast, together as bosses of arts umbrellas and cultural sector institutes also...
Dutch theatre-maker Adelheid Roosen, who is currently working with director Merel de Groot on a theatre project with Syrian art students, sees her project hindered because of student protests, although we are not entirely sure in the totalitarian country, from which we rarely receive news. The University of Damascus, where she is working on the project To tell You I call...
His Dutch has never been his strongest point, and he doesn't like to speak either. Still, a Holland Festival press conference is something to be at, so we take Pierre Audi's lesser performing skills for granted. in February, he presented the programme of the 2011 edition, which promises to be a very nice one, and which hopefully will not be the...
Annet Lekkerkerker is business director of the Holland Festival. She puts on a six-million euro festival with a grant of over four million euros.
Things become more fascinating when you look back on them 30 years or so later. Three decades make the life you were once in the middle of history, and that is happening to my generation (40-somethings) now with the second half of the last century. Hence the success of Jonathan Frantzen's masterpieces Freedom and The Corrections, and hence the success of a DVD series like Mad Men....
"That looks like a book series!" my wife spoke with some horror upon seeing the cover of 'The Revenge of Iphigenia'. And yes, it has to be said: in book format, the poster of Theatre Group Alum's latest theatre production is a bit too much of a stretch. From the A0 poster, you would never have thought so. Indeed: those posters of Alum, which...
Country houses will surround it, but in the middle there will be something completely different: a real "sculptural dwelling" by Atelier van Lieshout. With a price tag of a million euros, the house is not a cheap work of art either, but then you have something that the whole world comes to see. Less original than his recently erected one in Rotterdam...
The Hague is quite complicated for those who do not visit it on a daily basis. I was there last Monday, as a spectator at the discussion of the culture and media budget, and it has taken me until now to fully understand what is going on. For that understanding, being there live was essential. After all, to understand a social system like the Lower House, you not only have to listen to what is being said, and see who is speaking, much more important are the 'listening shots': the body language and actions of those who are not speaking.
"It cannot be ruled out that previous choices made by the cabinet, such as on the VAT increase and the sharp cut in the Music Centre of the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation, together with the announced cuts will cause irreparable damage to the cultural sector." Of course, even though Halbe Zijlstra has thankfully banned the term "Leftist Hobby" when it comes to culture, the distinguished gentlemen...
The art subsidy system is like a house that changes hands a little too often. In 2008, after long deliberations, the previous owner fitted a new kitchen, replaced the bathroom, installed a new central heating boiler + underfloor heating and freshly painted the exterior. However, he had to move out prematurely, and now the new owner plans to replace the old kitchen...
The Rutte government is defending the VAT increase on admission tickets to theatres and concerts, claiming that it will straighten out an exception for the arts. However, this does not appear to be true, according to a response from the Order of Tax Advisers to the proposal. "The Bar Association additionally points out that the explanatory memorandum notes that for the performing arts on...
Beppe Costa. Who doesn't know him. And who wouldn't go to a show he plays in without thinking for a minute? After all, the little Italian musical jack-of-all-trades is capable of winning hearts with his music. And with his presence. Well. Director Alize Zandwijk must have thought: we're going to change that image completely this autumn,...
The young Antwerp company FC Bergman performs Harold Pinter's classic play 'The Homecoming' in a completely unique, energetic and raw way. The Homecoming can be seen during Autumn Collection 2010 at Theatre Kikker on Saturday 30 October.
To be seen Friday 29 and Saturday 30 October for the last time in the Netherlands, during the Autumn Collection at Theater Kikker in Utrecht. After that, only in Cape Town.
Emke Idema plays The ins and outs of the hole in your head in Theatre Kikker's Autumn Collection on Wednesday 27 October and Thursday 28 October.
Once upon a time, a very long time ago in a different country from today, there was a play about a boy from Bosnia who made crowds cry. Ad de Bont had not only written a sensitive story with Mirad, a boy from Bosnia, but he also found the perfect way to deliver that story. It from letters to and from a...
GDMW festival comes from the tube of the only literary magazine still doing a bit in the Netherlands: Passionate Magazine. A bit contrary, youthful but not juvenile and with an open eye to the many cultures in the city where it was founded: Rotterdam. The festival is a happy combo of literary content, happy poets, embarrassing displays and beer,...
It was a pleasantly out-of-control flashmob: according to the police, there were around 3,000 people on The Hague's Malieveld at around noon. Young people, mostly: students from The Hague Art Academy and the Consevatorium. But that is not enough to make the Malieveld feel crowded. From all corners of the country, young art students were...
Ok, a few people might have been a tad disappointed. Who had hoped that Rotterdam's theatre would reopen with real bang, after the extremely successful upgrade of the interior by scrap artist Jan Versweyveld (suspended ceiling, marble and carpet on the stairs). But that, of course, cannot happen. After all, the Rotterdam Schouwburg only does bangers when International Choice boss Annemie Vanackere is there...
What she does is vulnerable to the point of confrontation. Theatre-maker Lotte van den Berg has such a personal view of the world that, outside the safe context of theatre, it can come across as absurd. Or alienating. On Sunday 26 September, she returned with the members of her Dordrecht-based location theatre company OMSK back from a four-month stay in the Congo capital Kinshasa. A full house in Rotterdam's Gouvernestraat then got to be there when they unpacked their bags a few hours after landing.
Art-goers take note: the joint unions and professional organisations in the cultural sector are calling Friday 24 September a national day of action. So on that day, visitors may be confronted by talking musicians and dancers. On the website 'Stop the cultural barrenness', numerous artists' organisations (from FNV Kiem to the Art Directors Club) are calling on Hague's opnderhandelers to abandon...
She has 14 first names because her father liked to name his whole family and she was an only child. She is an in-demand actress, but Gonny Gaakeer has also been a girl with a grandmother. A beautiful grandmother, who in the last years of her 95-year-old life fell over more and more often and bore the ugly wounds of it. Gonny tells her story, and...
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