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Wijbrand Schaap

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.

Yves Degryse by Koen Broos

Yves Degryse (Berlin) on the return of the legendary show 'Zvizdal' at #Theaterfestival Boulevard: "This really took me by my jacket"

Yves Degryse is one of the people behind the extraordinary Flemish company Berlin. Between 2011 and 2015, Berlin worked on the performance Zvizdal, largely shot in the 'forbidden zone' around the exploded Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. I saw the performance in 2016 in Den Bosch, during Festival Boulevard, and was 'blown away'. This year, it returns to Boulevard 

PR image Desire

Podcast! Louis Janssens on 'Desire': 'It's nice to be personal, but I don't want to make a diary play, so I also lie quite often.' #TFBOULEVARD

Louis Janssens is a young, ambitious theatre-maker from Flanders. With a string of rave reviews behind his name, he seems to have effortlessly found his place in the theatre world. This year, he is a prominent guest at Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. His latest play, 'Desire', will premiere at the Verkadefabriek on 3 August. The play highlights the delicate... 

Fisherman's friend

'Darkness with something of hope' - Second #Zomergasten under Theo Maassen delivers impressive Fishermansfriend moment

At a little before half past eleven, Sunday evening 30 July, cabaret performer and gifted interviewer Theo Maassen asked world-famous cameraman Hoyte van Hoytema: "What's the question you don't get answered?" Hoyte: "Shit, are you going to close with that?!" It was in the telling finale of an extraordinarily impressive second episode of Zomergasten 2023. An episode, too, in which we talked a lot about cinematography... 

'Give municipalities their own culture budget'. Interest groups put pressure on new election manifestos (and sort for BBB)

The creative sector is pushing for a major change in the arts subsidy system. This is evident from the lobbying documents (position papers and suggestions) sent to political parties' election programme writers. The largest and most important of these, the theatre boards (VSCD) and Kunsten 92, want the national government to give municipalities a clear and specific culture budget ('earmarked') from now on. By doing so, they want... 

Muziekgebouw aan t IJ Grote Zaal cr Postman81 (Postman81, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

Music building big loser at glorious start of #Zomergasten 2023 under Theo Maassen.

The motorhome sank. The theatre group Vis à Vis-inspired studio set of the legendary summer series Zomergasten had had its day. Was probably also because of the new presenter. Theo Maassen is very tall and lanky, and likes to flap his legs, so he would never have lasted without a wet suit to spend six summer Sunday evenings on the... 

Michiel1972, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

'Cabinet, reign on!', says Arts '92. How did it come to this?

Above all, we must continue with the favourable arts policy initiated by the fourth Rutte cabinet. That is what the arts umbrella organisation Kunsten ´92 says in a letter in response to the fall of the last cabinet under that name. This is a remarkable turn of events after 13 years in which most of the art world wanted nothing more than to get rid of the... 

decor Good Gold Money in Utrecht

Greg Nottrot is a brilliant seller of dreams in Good Gold Money.

In Anton Chekhov's legendary play 'Seagull' (1896), the young, ambitious playwright Konstantin shoots a seagull. It is a symbolic act, giving 'wings' to his desperate love for the young actress Nina. On 29 June 2023, the no longer very young (40) actor, writer and storyteller Greg Nottrot stops every now and then to... 

Marianne Versteegh neemt afscheid - foto Cultuurpers

Arts sector yearns for freedom - Marianne Versteegh bids farewell to Kunsten'92 after 31 years, with rare inspiring symposium

Wie uit nieuwsgierigheid onderzoek wil doen, moet vooral niet bij de overheid aankloppen voor geld. Of je nu wetenschapper bent of kunstenaar: in Den Haag wil men graag dat je van tevoren al weet wat je gaat vinden en wat dat gaat opleveren. Anoek Nuyens, die furore maakt met haar voorstelling ‘De Zaak Shell’, kon daarom een volgende voorstelling over… 

CocoRosie - pr-beeld

CocoRosie live in het Holland Festival: opvallend toegankelijk en stevig, en dat geldt ook voor het festival zelf

De gezusters Casady hebben, sinds ze samen in 2003 als CocoRosie door het leven gingen, een totaal eigen geluid ontwikkeld. Gisteren waren ze te gast op het Holland Festival, op uitnodiging van hun vriendin ANOHNI. Die heeft als associate artist het festivalpubliek dit jaar  laten kennismaken met de vrouwelijke en queer kant van de New Yorkse kunstscene. CocoRosie zijn met… 

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black-pr image

Holland Festival breaks fascinating new ground with old punk and Lithuanian rave.

Amy Winehouse is alive. Although perhaps we shouldn't call it life, as she stands in all her corpse-blue glory, looking bewildered at the audience in the Muziekgebouw for an hour. A bit like we know her from those tragic last concert recordings, where she was stiff with all the chemicals and liquid aids to perform a few last notes. She is now... 

‘ZZP’ers tijdens corona vooral in de steek gelaten door grote structureel gesubsidieerde kunstinstellingen.’

“De coronacrisis legt een aantal zwaktes van de culturele en creatieve sector bloot. In deze meest geflexibiliseerde sector van de economie is de flexibele schil tijdens de coronacrisis een gemakkelijke bezuinigingsoptie gebleken. Daardoor hebben zzp’ers deels hun heil moeten zoeken buiten de culturele en creatieve sector en keren zij mogelijk niet meer terug.” Wat we al hoorden, zagen en wisten… 

image from the film by David Hannan

Thanks to Wallworth at the Holland Festival one last look up from beneath a dying sea.

The dome of Artis Planetarium is made for stars; it is not a shiny Imax canvas. That the images in Coral: Rekindling Venus by Lynette Wallworth therefore do not splash off the screen is to be expected. Wallworth, a close friend and colleague of ANOHNI, is prominent at this year's Holland Festival and made Coral, Rekindling Venus exclusively... 

Ed Atkins Photo by Kiasma

Poetic gem by Ed Atkins knows exactly how to strike a chord

That he prefers not to hear news about the weather, but that there were once people alive who he knew, and what the weather was like then, Ed Atkins cannot talk about that often enough. So he repeats that phrase endlessly. A 'loop', then, as we know it from music and video art. But performed live. Is... 

Organic dairy farm

Art knows all about symbols, so bring on those sustainable symbol politics!

"The easiest gain is then to produce less. Because high production implies a lot of energy and material use, travel movements and other forms of impact." Last week, the Council for Culture's long-awaited opinion on sustainability was released, and sooner than I could click 'open', all was set. Came all because of the above sentence, which, mentioned in... 

Sigur Ros - © Hörður Óttarsson

Sigur Rós overwhelms Concertgebouw with multi-layered magic music - HF23

The picture is immediate. Vast glaciated vistas, patches of fog and the twilight of a land where the sun rises only once a year. Something like that. And then that soaring music that in one long tone makes all air traffic redundant for at least a month. Beneath it the rumble of shifting earth plates. For the first time in 10 years, Sigur Rós made another... 

Ivo van Hove in 2020. Photo by Jan Versweyveld

IVO VAN HOVE STEPS DOWN AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ITA

Even though they are not yet members at ITA, let me pass on this press release. Because of its (inter)national importance. Coming: Ivo van Hove (1958) will end his role as artistic director of ITA on 1 September 2023. This means that he will then hand over his position as statutory director and artistic director. The Supervisory Board (BoS) intends to appoint Eline... 

Pankaj Tiwari, an artist from the poorest part of India, and Polish performer Maria Magdalena Kozłowska. Photo: Eva Roefs

Sustainability is a luxury issue in Jerome Bel's airplane-less autobiography (and the show turns out to be more fun than I first thought)

Input from members: that's what drives this club. Just watch. Yesterday I wrote this piece: Jerome Bel is quite something. The man who identifies himself as a choreographer has banned himself from flying for sustainability reasons, which is why he could not come to Amsterdam from Paris to read his own autobiography. However noble the non-flying... 

Lynette Walworth by Cassandra Hannagan

Lynette Walworth brings empathetic art. That takes some getting used to at the Holland Festival

A TED Talk, but not 15 minutes as prescribed by that scattershot ideas organisation, but an hour and a half. In How To Live (After You Die), the monumental artist Lynette Walworth takes you through a story-with-light images about the temptations of sectarian faith, which, via the Amazon and the Outback, over Donald Trump and along the steppes of Mongolia, ends in the caves... 

Culture Press podcast, the Holland Festival edition: the most feminine festival ever?

The first half of the Holland Festival is pretty much over, so time for Team Culture Press to take a look at what that first half has brought us. A lot, according to Helen Westerik and Wijbrand Schaap, and also many real highlights. 'Perhaps the best edition in years.' Among other things, we discuss the intimate installation 'Evolution of Fearlessness', look back... 

ensemble Wuthering Heights. Photo: Steve Tanner

Glossy role for the bog in unprecedentedly perfect update of Wuthering Heights at Holland Festival

I can't resist mentioning it, because I think they were doing it for a reason, the dancers in the musical Wuthering Heights making really visible big rounds with their arms one time: this was a half-second reference to Kate Bush's world-changing 'windmill swings' in the music video to her legendary 1978 pop song. A subtle nod as in my... 

still from Euphoria by Julien Rosefeldt

Rosefeldt's 'Euphoria' is one of the most impressive things I ever experienced. 

What if 200 of the greatest thinkers and poets this planet has known in recent centuries were just one of us? An ordinary stranger on a bus, or your taxi driver, or a skater? Or a singing tiger in a supermarket? Julian Rosefeldt makes that thought audible, tactile and almost tangible in the mega-installation 'Euphoria' at the... 

scene photo by Camilla Adams

'Drive Your Plough...' - Masterful narrative theatre by Simon McBurney is a lesson for every viewer #HF23

A word says more than a thousand images. This may seem strange in a world that thrives on visual culture, but it is a truism. If you have yet to see cows of all shapes and sizes, let the Holland Festival convince you. Yesterday, I saw the opening performance 'Drive Your Plough Over The Bones Of The Dead' and... 

ANGELA (a strange loop) 1 © Julian Röder

In Susanne Kennedy's Angela, you have a say as a spectator. #hf23

Not much happens in Angela (A Strange Loop) by Susanne Kennedy. That is not a bad thing; there is more art in which little happens. Beckett, for instance, was a master of it. Just as he caused confusion in the 1950s with pieces like Waiting for Godot, viewers and critics alike get a bit thrown off by Susanne... 

cover report Shadow Dancing

Border crossing in the dance world: excellent research leaves out elephant in the room

Dansen, van superamateur tot wereldklasse professioneel, gaat gepaard met grensoverschrijding, machtsmisbruik, fysieke aanslagen en seksueel wangedrag dat in stand wordt gehouden door een hardnekkige zwijgcultuur. Het langverwachte onderzoek door Marjan Olfers, ‘Schaduwdansen’, naar grensoverschrijding in de danswereld, had nog schokkender resultaten dan iedereen vooraf vreesde. De cijfers zijn inmiddels genoegzaam bekend: een meerderheid van de dansers heeft grensoverschrijdend gedrag aan… 

vake poes; or how god disappeared, lisaboa houbrechts Photo by Kurt van der Elst

Vake Poes by Lisaboa Houbrechts at the Holland Festival: in search of beauty in a very dark story

'Sometimes people come to me crying to tell their stories, things they have experienced.' Theatre-maker, author, director Lisaboa Houbrechts has stirred things up with Vake Poes, the theatrical family epic she created with the Flemish company La Geste. The fierce performance, in its lyricism fitting into the oeuvre of Alain Platel's Les Ballets C de la B... 

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