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Those who fear - by virtue of being white men or women - that the descendants of enslaved people are coming to punish them for being grossly at fault for the consequences of the now infamous VOC Mentality, can sleep a little more peacefully again. During the first day of the Dutch Theatre Festival, Thursday 2 September in Amsterdam, surprisingly conciliatory noises rang out when it came to...
'We thought it would be a good idea, after a year and a half of misery, not to start immediately with the most critical perspective, but rather to emphasise how good it was to be together again.' In this podcast, Marijn Lems and Wijbrand Schaap look back with Guy Weizman at his 'State of the Theatre', the traditional opening of the...
If you want to navigate in unfamiliar waters, it is good to take a map with you. My father was a fisherman, he hardly read, but that's what he told me. Now that I come to Amsterdam, that is also the first thing I do: make a map. What museums are there, is there a cool restaurant, is there new architecture?
Art should challenge. The National Theatre explores the limits of virtual child pornography with The Nether: can you live 'without consequences'?
We're talking about the non-attending theatre. Because it was all about it last week at Theatre Festival Boulevard and then on social media following this post. One who spoke out very strongly about it was theatre and screenwriter Jan Veldman (a.o. Theatre Group Jan Vos). 'I think thinking theatre is an elitist idea, and at least...
There is a bit of a buzz about Daan Roosegaarde. Again, we might say, because Daan Roosegaarde, it turns out, cannot be described as a creator of original work, but as someone with a rather remarkably sensitive antenna for other people's ideas. Which he then presents as his own work. From the article in the Volkskrant on this, one and...
According to Linde van Schuppen, philosopher and linguist, medics do not really listen to people with psychosis. At least, they do listen to someone suffering from obvious delusions, but that is to establish that the person is indeed off the track. 'But, how then?" is the question a psychiatrist or neurologist is not trained to answer, she argues. That is why she is doing her PhD.
If you get the urge to run your finger through the candle flame for a moment, then a VR installation is already almost successful. Not just because of the technical feat, but also because it convinces as a place to bivouac for half an hour. I am standing at the bar of a seventeenth-century Amsterdam pub. There are murmurs, music, a bartender who is...
One of the very best things about Festival Boulevard is the variety of programming. Theatre, dance, music, youth performances, mime, comedy, it all mixes together. And the festival offers just as much space to young makers as to the old hands. So you get a good overview of what the up-and-coming generation of theatre makers has to offer....
Writer and publicist Henk Pröpper had only just moved to his beloved Paris when the city came to a standstill, and so did his heart almost. Once fitted with a pacemaker, he took to the city in the one hour a day Parisians were allowed. A new world opened up for him. For Henk Pröpper (62), former director...
The permanent site of Boulevard's festival centre has largely turned into a construction site this year. This forced the organisers to move to Zuiderpark. Although this is a bit outside the city centre, it is much more spacious and green than the Parade square. It gives the festival a nice feeling of air, space and proximity to the...
The vast majority of Dutch adults never go to the theatre. Interestingly enough, the question among theatre people is never really about why people don't go to the theatre. After all, our arts sector is a supply market. At an art school, you are not trained to please the public, but to express your most individual emotion. And then preferably...
Bosses start to look like their dogs. Or vice versa. Or owners like dogs who look like them. Or vice versa. Either way. If you want proof of this statement, hurry to Theatre Festival Boulevard where John Buijsman plays the gem 'Cosmic Cowboy', assisted by Kees, a labradoodle. Or something that should pass for that. John Buijsman is one of the...
I have seen a lot of genre mash-ups in my lifetime. But I think a danced documentary about a musician was a first for me. The focus of choreographer Jan Martens in his new dance solo Elisabeth Gets Her Way is the famous harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka. The Polish left for Paris at the age of 23. There she set her sights on...
One of the things that make Boulevard so special in the Dutch festival landscape is its generous focus on Belgian performances. Where Dutch theatres programme less and less work from across the southern borders, Boulevard continues to offer a stage to a large number of Belgian makers. Learning to live together This produces very varied work again this year. At the heart of the festival is...
There is a huge amount happening in theatre, this summer, as many summer festivals have special corona editions where they show a lot of what was made in attic rooms last year during the forced closure of theatres. One such show was Die Hexe, by Club Gewalt, a fresh point theatre band/theatre collective that is/was showing at Theatre Festival Boulevard this summer. Nerd...
Better to die standing than to live kneeling. The statement is fresh in memory after the murder in the Lange Leidse Dwarsstraat, as a mantra in praise of Peter R de Vries, his fearlessness, non-conformism, straightforwardness and honesty. This same statement jumps out even from the first paragraphs of the introduction to the biography of poet Jef Last, written by Rudi Wester.1....
Think Pussy Riot, think Rammstein, maybe think Nina Hagen before she found Jesus and mix that up nice and fierce. Then you get something that is basically an insane festival act. Raging female punk in a beer- and smoke-soaked nightclub, ferocious moshpits full of people who really have something to dance out of their souls. It's all in there...
It was supposed to be Ivo van Hove's big break on Broadway. And it was meant to be, but fate decided otherwise. It was announced today via US show news Variety that West Side Story, in Ivo van Hove's modern, raucous version, will not be revived. Despite a jubilant reception and virtually sold-out theatres,...
We don't look upward enough. Maybe we do a quick glance at the horizon to see if that shower is really going to ruin our terrace afternoon, but that's not looking for the sake of looking. And I was able to do that thanks to the people of BLOOS. In Bossche Zuiderpark, they have a...
Guilherme Miotto is artistic director of Corpo Maquina, an extraordinary dance company based in Breda and Tilburg. This year, among other things, he is at Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch with the performance Tak. A performance, stemming from an earlier project in an urban district of Den Bosch. Six women he worked with there now form an ensemble with whom he...
White balls are quite in the news, lately. For instance, they molest compatriots as a holiday pastime. Or they shout 'Snollebollekes' at a black champion. So the fact that white balls can also be fine is news. You can experience it at Festival Boulevard, where in a small, narrow tent, thousands of white Styrofoam balls, driven by huge fans, give you a fine massage shower,...
For a year and a half, there was hardly any playing, festival tents remained in mothballs and artists were busy doing living room concerts or attic sessions on Zoom. Now everything is allowed out again and the discharge is just barely there. Unaccustomedness characterises the fresh start of Theatre Festival Boulevard, which has moved to a park south of downtown Bossche for the next few years,...
The uncertainty of the events sector and cultural institutions, after 17 months of lockdowns and one-and-a-half-month openings, is not only disastrous for the mood of directors, artists and spectators. According to the Creative Sector Taskforce, much more is being lost. In fact, a 'Marshall Plan' is needed to get the cultural and creative sector back on its feet,...
Down to the union, the message was shared: outgoing culture minister Ingrid van Engelshoven had allegedly gone overboard with her diversity policy and now wants to ban non-diverse art from universities. It was big in the Telegraaf and former cabaret artist Hans Teeuwen got a few hundred thousand likes with it on Instagram. Meanwhile, it has also reached the columns of Het Parool thanks to 'artist'
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