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Dance and ballet, theatre with gory atrocities and clattering emotions, imaginative lighting, set and costume effects and, above all, enthusiasm bursting forth. HNTjong's 'biggest production ever' with 30 actors for 50 roles is overwhelming. Thanks also to the corona crisis: the National Theatre had to postpone the performance for a year and a half and lift it over two summer holidays, with all the misery...
A virtual gun, which, when you shoot it, does not fire a bullet but displays a pop-up with encyclopaedic information about what you have just fired at. Now if only we fought the next war with that. It was conceived by Iranian artist Ali Eslami, who was forced by the lockdown to use his international network to develop...
During the Netherlands Film Festival, Joris Hoebe (New Noardic Wave) and Guido Franken (CineSud) launched the new network organisation Screen Talent NL. A network that ultimately aims to inspire and support talent and film activities in all regions of the Netherlands.
Last Monday, 20 September, the Nederlandse Reisopera presented its programme for the upcoming season. The speaker was Josef Fuchs, who was introduced as the company's new artistic director by its general director a.i. Nina Hiddema. A festive occasion, which caused slight surprise in the small gathering (a few journalists and some colleagues). In an interview (below...
Producer Pieter van Huystee resumes working with Heddy Honigmann, one of the Netherlands' leading documentary filmmakers. In her latest film No Hay Camino (There is no road), she looks back on her work and life. Interview with Van Huystee, on the road he travelled with her over 25 years.
'It really is the case that at some point the dead come back to look for you, and then you have to have dinner with them.' Italian writer Marta Barone (34), who records these words in her novel Sunken City, experienced this first-hand when she lost her father Leonardo, now a decade ago. Barone grew up at...
Als een van beide ouders niet stevig op z’n benen staat, hoe beïnvloedt dat dan een heel gezin? Daarover gaat Een goede moeder, de nieuwe roman van Jan van Mersbergen (50). Het verhaal is gebaseerd op de afgelopen jaren van zijn eigen leven. ‘Het moest geen afrekening worden.’ Avonturenroman Twee jaar geleden zei hij dat hij op zijn vijftigste, als…
Last weekend's #unmuteus parades might lead you to believe that, as soon as the weather allows, the cultural world will be out of its misery in less than no time. The tens of thousands who took to the streets are soon populating the halls again, and with a little more water with the beer, and slightly more expensive mints, the night and event industry - which is also there for the...
Art, and certainly avant garde art, thrives on the frayed edges of society. Especially in the second half of the 20th century, industrial heritage and unrenovated urban foam was the place where art could escape the norms of the ruling class. The NDSM wharf in Amsterdam North, Hall 4 or the Submarine Wharf in Rotterdam, Ceramique in Maastricht, Sterrebos in...
'As for many people, the theatre festival really does mean something. Like the Fringe, it is impossible to imagine without it. I've been able to make artistic friendships there, I've been able to have arguments there, I've met people who I thought were adversaries who turned out to be comrades-in-arms. Because there are not only performances, there is...
Plays often end in chaos. An overturned liquor cabinet, a blood blade among royals, we're used to a few things. Jetse Batelaan's latest play, baroque and sharper than he showed before, also ends in beauty, but then that is actually the beginning. Indeed, the ending is sterile and stripped of any life. But that is where the performance begins. The artistic director of...
'A beautiful gift to the city'- this is how the Hartwig Art Foundation describes on its website the plan to initiate a new art museum on the Zuidas. It is a private initiative by entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist Rob Defares. The Amsterdam Arts Council has advised positively on the plan, with the municipality deciding on it soon. It sounds promising: an art hall - there will be no...
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 (including 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.
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, rush 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...
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