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We are nowhere near crazy enough. Why theatre desperately needs a little more Crazy Wisdom.

'We will never be 'the same' enough, we fringe characters: bipolar, borderline, gay, lesbian, indeterminate, narcissistic, autistic, hysterical - and we are all fatally insecure and we all need a hug.' Permanent, seemingly inevitable insecurity is peculiar to the theatre industry. Ramsey Nasr hit that sharply in his speech on receiving his second Louis D'Or. The courage, or sometimes almost masochistic... 

Read More "We are nowhere near crazy enough. Why theatre desperately needs a little more Crazy Wisdom.

We predicted it right: Swans for Conny Janssen Dances and Schuitemaker

Ruben Brugman predicted it on 22 June. So it was not a total surprise. On Friday 4 October, the VSCD Dance Awards, the Swans, were presented at The Dutch Dance Days Gala of Festival de Nederlandse Dansdagen 2019 at Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht. Conny Janssen, artistic director of Conny Janssen Danst, received the Golden Swan from minister van Engelshoven.... 

Read More "We predicted it right: Swans for Conny Janssen Dances and Schuitemaker

Ivo van Hove directed a top-notch broadcast of Zomergasten, with a wonderful lead role for Janine Abbring.

Janine Abbring has managed to pull the somewhat ramshackle institution Zomergasten out of the doldrums. She has fun, is excellently prepared, is genuinely interested in her guests and has managed to push the eternal battle element into the background without making the broadcasts less exciting. That battle element was always: does the interviewer succeed in 'breaking' the guest? Because. 

Read More "Ivo van Hove directed a top-notch broadcast of Zomergasten, with a wonderful lead role for Janine Abbring.

TipiToe Festival: Texel grounding for gliders and non-gliders in beautiful surroundings.

'I know what you're banging on about!' The tattooed athlete who is still chilling after her pole dance workshop playfully shouts it at her friend, who has landed a solid left direct on my boxing glove. 'Well and truly,' she calls back. She smiles kindly at it. I know I don't have to take her slaps personally.... 

Read More "TipiToe Festival: Texel grounding for gliders and non-gliders in beautiful surroundings.

Art cannot be exclusive enough. At Festival Noorderzon, everyone can experience it for themselves 

Police sirens sound less frequently in Groningen than in a city like Amsterdam. When they sounded last Wednesday night, it was because residents of the premises behind the local art academy, Minerva, raised the alarm. Standing on the roof was not an owl, but an almost naked man shouting that he was going to rob the Coop. Mads Wittermans, the actor in question, had forgotten the... 

Read More "Art cannot be exclusive enough. At Festival Noorderzon, everyone can experience it for themselves 

Gijs Naber takes forced rest and abandons lead role in Lazarus. Dragan Bakema replaces him.

Dragan Bakema will play the lead role of Newton in David Bowie's Lazarus. Gijs Naber has been forced to hand back the role after coming to the conclusion that he has made too much hay in recent times. Gijs Naber: "In the run-up to the rehearsal period, I came to the conclusion that I have been making too much hay in recent years... 

Read More "Gijs Naber takes forced rest and abandons lead role in Lazarus. Dragan Bakema replaces him.

Call by Wim Claessen, former director of Theatre Festival Boulevard: 'Are there any directors left who dare to turn the tide?'

This is a letter sent in by Wim Claessen, who founded Boulevard in 1984, and passed the baton to Geert Overdam in 2002, who was succeeded by Viktorien van Hulst in 2014. "It is a disgrace that we are still standing here," spoke Viktorien van Hulst at the opening of Theatre Festival Boulevard at the Theater aan de Parade. "How... 

Read More "Call by Wim Claessen, former director of Theatre Festival Boulevard: 'Are there any directors left who dare to turn the tide?'

Five quarters of an adolescent brain. Jetse Batelaan makes growing pains hilariously palpable at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

When you make theatre for children and young people, you tell stories to children and young people from your adult existence as an adult. You can do that. You can get funding for that. Artemis, previously named the second-best theatre company in the Netherlands here, is such a company. But, because this youth theatre company is led by Jetse Batelaan, Artemis likes to do things differently. Stronger... 

Read More "Five quarters of an adolescent brain. Jetse Batelaan makes growing pains hilariously palpable at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

Impressive Minaret shows at Theatre Festival Boulevard that art survives disasters. (And check out what Miet Warlop pulls off with Dervishes)

Miet Warlop has exciting ideas, and carries them out. Now she is not unique in that. More artists do that. What makes Miet Warlop special is that it invariably leads to really special work. Take her latest creation, to be seen at Theatre Festival Boulevard, 'Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Brake': she puts three people on stage and... 

Read More "Impressive Minaret shows at Theatre Festival Boulevard that art survives disasters. (And check out what Miet Warlop pulls off with Dervishes)

Colson Whitehead writes gripping book on cruelty in US juvenile justice: 'The system is still intact'

With his slavery novel The Underground Railroad, American writer Colson Whitehead broke through worldwide. His impressive new book The Nickel Boys is once again about a gruesome page in recent American history. Torture, rape, even murder: at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, it was the order of the day. For as many as 111 years, the... 

Read More "Colson Whitehead writes gripping book on cruelty in US juvenile justice: 'The system is still intact'

Why youth is the future and fake art does not lead to real art at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

Bossche Theatre Artemis is, after International Theatre Amsterdam, the best theatre company in the Netherlands. The company owes this to an illustrious past (Pauline Mol!!) and to Jetse Batelaan. This director recently received the prestigious Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for his disruptive oeuvre. This consists largely of performances in which children take power, without... 

Read More "Why youth is the future and fake art does not lead to real art at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

In search of pleasure and secret spots, you sometimes stumble upon very special things during Festival Boulevard

The central character in theatre-maker Marijn Graven's Lo Lie Taa was there early. At least, so he tells the mirrored floor and the audience in his monologue Lo Lie Taa. As a nine-year-old, he was already madly in love with his mother and not long after, his life was defined by pursuing as many splashy results of his... 

Read More "In search of pleasure and secret spots, you sometimes stumble upon very special things during Festival Boulevard

White wine and black pain at finely diverse Theatre Festival Boulevard

One of the benefits of advancing secularisation is that beautiful buildings are becoming vacant in more and more places. You can do things with those buildings. With art, for example. So this week, Studio Orka from Belgium did something beautiful in the Maria Church in Vught. They turned the empty neo-Romanesque building into, yes, an empty church.... 

Read More "White wine and black pain at finely diverse Theatre Festival Boulevard

Boulevard opens with great ambition. It will be exciting regardless.

The Theater aan de Parade is slowly but surely starting to become the blot of cultural politics in Den Bosch. The outdated theatre has too low ceilings, too much plush, asbestos and past to still be a credit to the Brabant provincial capital. Viktorien van Hulst, director of the now 35-year-old Theatre Festival Boulevard, made a point of saying during her opening speech on 1 August that the... 

Read More "Boulevard opens with great ambition. It will be exciting regardless.

At last. Interest groups arts and creative industries seek collaboration

It is actually a footnote in the press release that lobby organisation Kunsten '92 sent out into the world today. But, as always with footnotes, it did contain the most important news. Because Kunsten 92, the club in which organisations in the arts sector polder, is "exploring cooperation" with the Creative Industry Federation. The latter is the Arts '92 of everything that is also culture and creativity,... 

Read More "At last. Interest groups arts and creative industries seek collaboration

Jeremy Dutcher on Amsterdam Roots: 'I think we can expect something very beautiful in the generations to come, as long as we keep singing our songs.'

It is, so in his normal clothes, a cheerful, spontaneous guy who walks up to me in the hotel lobby where we have arranged to meet. Jeremy Dutcher the Canadian singer who is one of the main guests at this year's Amsterdam Roots festival, hardly shows any traces of the jet lag he must have undoubtedly sustained from his flight, which took off a few hours earlier... 

Read More "Jeremy Dutcher on Amsterdam Roots: 'I think we can expect something very beautiful in the generations to come, as long as we keep singing our songs.'

The Netherlands' Flemishest festival. Theatre festival Boulevard sees artists searching for a way forward

'As programmers, we are more often in Ghent than in Amsterdam,' says Viktorien van Hulst, director of Theatre Festival Boulevard. The Bossche arts festival, which this year takes place from 1 to 11 August under the Sint Jan and at unexpected locations around the North Brabant capital, has for years stood out for its close ties with our southern neighbours. 'The Dionysian artists are sitting... 

Read More "The Netherlands' Flemishest festival. Theatre festival Boulevard sees artists searching for a way forward

No one in the art came up with a plan B. (Why the current chaos was caused by lobbyists)  

'I'm not going to make everyone happy with this.' These words were uttered by minister Ingrid van Engelshoven during the debate on her principles paper last Thursday. True words. Indeed, the shine of her ministership has now worn off. Van Engelshoven is, after Bussemaker, the second culture minister who had to implement Mark Rutte's culture policy, and had nothing to offer but a... 

Read More "No one in the art came up with a plan B. (Why the current chaos was caused by lobbyists)  

'When you bring back the songs, you bring back the people, you bring back everything'. Why Amsterdam Roots should be proud of coming Jeremy Dutcher.

28-year-old Jeremy Dutcher is a sensation. With his reinterpretation of native songs by Canadian Indians, he won the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy last year; names like Arcade Fire, Feist and Kaytranada preceded him. Amsterdam Roots Festival is now bringing award-winning Canadian musician Jeremy Dutcher to the Netherlands for a performance at the Bimhuis on 10 July 2019. When... 

Read More "'When you bring back the songs, you bring back the people, you bring back everything'. Why Amsterdam Roots should be proud of coming Jeremy Dutcher.

With a cohesive team, you win the World Cup. How the Holland Festival gagged all the cynics this year.

The 2019 Holland Festival was the best in decades. At least in the 25 years I have consciously witnessed it, I cannot recall a national festival that coupled so much impact with so much prestige. Whether visitor targets were met or not will be of no concern to me in this regard. It is, as Volkskrant colleague Hein Janssen once remarked,... 

Read More "With a cohesive team, you win the World Cup. How the Holland Festival gagged all the cynics this year.

Colin Benders plays Concertgebouw flat on closing night of memorable Holland Festival 2019

Stereo is primitive. Cinema operators have known that for a while, and so has anyone with a 7:1 set to go with their TV. Two speakers, no matter how good and big or small, remain two speakers. Now, of course, we also only have two ears, but they can place 360-degree sound thanks to some clever ribbing and our own smart brains. So sound should be... 

Read More "Colin Benders plays Concertgebouw flat on closing night of memorable Holland Festival 2019

Pity the Poles! Intense suicidal sadness in stage adaptation of Kafka's 'Trial'.

You must be a Pole. That, as the Dutch premiere of 'Process' at the Holland Festival showed, is no laughing matter. This performance, an adaptation of Franz Kafka's famous novel of the same name, conveys that feeling very poignantly. Five hours long, interrupted only by two half-hour intermissions, during which a mackerel sandwich can be eaten. Or a bowl of mixed nuts. Observant... 

Read More "Pity the Poles! Intense suicidal sadness in stage adaptation of Kafka's 'Trial'.

Art is totally useless, and politicians need to make that clearer. (Why Mark Rutte should go out more often)

This afternoon, there will be a hearing in the Lower House on Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven's guiding principles note. That memorandum which everyone now realises is a fig leaf from her own pocket. Speakers have prepared their finest speeches, and some of it will surely go viral within the various cultural social media bubbles afterwards. I was getting a little despondent... 

Read More "Art is totally useless, and politicians need to make that clearer. (Why Mark Rutte should go out more often)

Tryptich by Bryce Dessner is just a little too perfect to really hit home

The Americans have a word for it: production value. By this you can indicate that a performance is technically perfect. The sound is right, the stage setting is excellent, the costumes are all right, the lighting brilliant and the actors, singers and musicians: top notch. Even the extras are at their best. So a show with high production value can rely on little... 

Read More "Tryptich by Bryce Dessner is just a little too perfect to really hit home

'Meat sandwich' still most popular at food festivals Festival Atlas sees festivalisation declining

The peak of the festivalisation of the Netherlands seems to be behind us. The number of festivals has declined by over 10% in two years. This is according to research by the Hogeschool van Amsterdam into the festival landscape in the Netherlands. Responsible lecturer Harry van Vliet (Crossmedia): "The decline in the number of music festivals was already visible in 2017, but the decline is the... 

Read More "'Meat sandwich' still most popular at food festivals Festival Atlas sees festivalisation declining

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