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The BBC's bank in Manchester (photo by author)

After the #Zomergasten with Bibi Dumon Tak, the main question remains: how to proceed with books on TV?

Adriaan van Dis with an intensely coquettish Renate Dorrestein, who (rightly) got him on the ropes with a few well-aimed pussy remarks. This excerpt from 1991 opened Zomergasten 2023 #4, and it chopped. Nostalgia all around, and during those first minutes of Theo Maassen with animal and children's book author Bibi Dumon Tak, the bar was set high. Would Theo Maassen with this... 

Chatham House, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Remains the question after #Summerguests s23a3: What was that snippet killed from The Singing Detective?

Fascinating television, for sure. Cabaret artist Theo Maassen, who is emerging as an excellent interviewer in this Summer Guest year, went 'full Paxman' on Khadija Arib. Following in the footsteps of famous BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, he pulled out all the stops to elicit a confession from the former Lower House Speaker. It didn't work, and at half past 12, after a very tense hour of interview television, it stood... 

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... 

Source: Rijksmuseum. CCO

'Drawing lots for subsidy might be fairer': listen to podcast with Renée Steenbergen and Ellen Hardy

'We have had the Top Income Standardisation Act since 2013. That means that in the semi-public sector, the highest in an organisation are not allowed to earn above a certain standard. There are conductors who earn as much in the evening as the entire orchestra costs. That, of course, is bizarre. Then I always wonder how it is that they can escape the dance.' This... 

flyer The Utility

Committed theatre maker seeks surplus capital - Het NUT presents Good Gold Money at Oerol Festival and Berlin Square in Utrecht

Utrecht, March 2023 - Theatre producer and actor Greg Nottrot, artistic director of the NUT (Nieuw Utrechts Toneel), will create and perform this summer's show Good Gold Money. Theatre about inequality, excess and the discomfort and necessity of money. The performance can be seen at Oerol Festival on Terschelling from 9 to 18 June and from 28 June to... 

Hoe winnen we de ironie terug van extremisten? 

Wie in het werk van de mij tot nu toe volslagen onbekende schilder Rein Dool iets anders dan ironie ziet (zoals de schilder het ook heeft beschreven in een item op tv), heeft niet goed opgelet bij colleges literatuur- en kunstgeschiedenis. Rein Dool schilderde in 1974 een portret van het toenmalige College van Bestuur van de Leidsche Universiteit. We zien… 

Melle Daamen is better on the pitch than in the paper

Voor Melle Daamen koester ik sympathie. En al lang: vanaf de keer dat hij als jonge VPRO bestuurder bij me op bezoek kwam op zijn ronde langs mensen uit de cultuurwereld. Hij kwam om advies vragen: hoe kon hij de sector binnenkomen? Want een baan in de cultuur was zijn ambitie. Zoveel jaar later passeerde hij me in de procedure… 

Monday debate day. Follow our famous pointing updates live! (not just via the birther network) #tkculture

We grew up with it: live tweets from the heart of our democracy. Now, of course, debates on culture in recent years have been a bit different from what we expect now. There is no longer a need to fight over the reputation of the arts, as there was during all debates until a year ago. What is it about now? Energy, thinking... 

FAQ in Den Bosch: An alchemists' festival full of niches, nerds and drones #novembermusic

Not everyone thinks music is also something to look at. Not a crazy idea, considering that some music is so layered and complex that you need all your attention for listening. So modern electronic music largely takes place in the dark, I experienced during two evenings of FAQ Festival in Den Bosch. There, I discovered that I... 

The cultural sector needs to be protected from itself. Maryam Hassouni makes that crystal clear in What the Fak!

Patronisation! Woke terror! These were some of the reactions from the film world when there were calls for the appointment of an intimacy coordinator at Dutch film productions. As if anyone could allow or display sexually transgressive behaviour in a studio with 40 other staff around it. Impossible! Yesterday, the book Wat de Fak! by award-winning actress Maryam Hassouni was published and in it, it states... 

4 Reasons why theatre performance Light in Leidsche Rijn is not all that nice by chance

Light is the name of the latest production by NUT, a theatre company with close ties to Utrecht's Leidsche Rijn district. It is theatre in a bubble in Utrecht's largest city park, and it starts with good food and drink. I went to see it, and again became even more of a fan than I already was. A few reasons, why that came about.

Inez Wolters creates family performance with Strawinsky circus: 'I believe ten-year-olds can handle a lot' #festivalcircolo

Tilburg-based chamber orchestra Kamerata Zuid, with dancer and choreographer Inez Wolters, performs Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat as a family performance. The performance will premiere this week at Festival Circolo, Holland's largest circus festival, also in Tilburg. Wolters is an all-rounder. With Swarmers, she stages dance on location, with audience participation. She also leads with her wild and... 

IN PERSPECTIVE #10: Tea, biscuits and a working title: Cultural Netherlands

I had coffee, tea and snacks ready. I had also asked my son, the designer, to sketch an example of a future logo for 'Cultureel Nederland'1. Although the Federation of Culture (FC)'s heyday took place at the chairman's house and not on the heath, it was meant to be a heyday. That is, an informal conversation about... 

Identity and diversity in circus: not hype but fascinating innovation #festivalcircolo

Nick van der Heyden, queer circus performer, garnered approving laughter from a room full of circus students in Tilburg. He just explained that he had found a new lease of life by doing his performances as an acrobat from now on as a drag queen. 'They thought something of that here at school. There, the new circus was mainly a matter of making it as simple as possible... 

Jesse Huygh balances high level with cystic fibrosis #festivalcircolo

When, at the end of his performance, he stands on top of a five-metre high pole, struggling to keep his balance, the audience holds its breath. As does Jesse himself, but he does not do so voluntarily. We watched him struggle for a performance with oxygen hoses and blood meters, pausing regularly to get air again. What if... 

We need to handle our last days differently, that much is made clear by POW-WOW by Minou Bosua. 

We die too late. Most of the time. After all, nobody wants to spend the last years of life leaking in a nursing home, cared for by ever-changing staff who do their stinking best but are incapable of the love that children, or close friends for want of it, could give. Better a pill than dementia, we say, but then you have to say 'Yes! 

The 59th Venice Biennale: there is so much to get behind the big and established names that has fallen away.

One might, when visiting the Venice Arte Biennale 2022, immediately shout 'woke' or 'wokism'. It's not that difficult, since the curator's choices emphasise female and non-Western artists.1 But I would find that too easy and ultimately unjustified. When you try to look fresh - forgetting all the reflections beforehand - it falls... 

Trapeze Annemieke van der Togt

Circus provides perfect backdrop for Kees Prins' tragicomic 'Trapeze'

Stop or keep going until you drop dead? And can you build on the other? Serious life questions that the occasional duo Peter Blok and Bas Hoeflaak will answer from a trapeze on the ridge of their circus, joking and snarking. The dry humour and mugshots of Peter Blok (experienced stage, film and TV actor) and actor-cabaret artist Bas Hoeflaak (Snipers) are... 

'I Say Sorry' masterfully makes tangible what a madness our slavery past is.  

Saying sorry seems to be difficult, if the songs about it are to be believed, and if we measure the time it takes Dutch governments to do it. But sorry is also very easy, if you consider how often you are not pushed aside in the queue for something or other, after the word 'sorry' has sounded behind you, or -... 

For me, the Bijlmer disaster is a grim memory that comes back every year.

It is not an everyday topic: where were you when the Bijlmer disaster occurred? But this disaster, of 4 October 1992, is discussed every year, especially by eyewitnesses. For me, it is a grim memory that comes back every year. And now for the 30th time. 'The Bijlmer disaster is the name given to the air disaster that took place on Sunday evening, 4 October 1992. A... 

Don't confuse autonomous arts with creative industries

Since the budget cuts from 2011 onwards, policymakers have been setting the so-called 'creative industries' as a model for the arts. Industrial design, architecture, graphic design and the gaming industry: the creatives have been nuked as a 'top sector'. This, I believe, is the deeper cause of the unease expressed in this newspaper's Cultural Supplement: the increasing instrumentalisation of the arts by policymakers. The piece 'Why the... 

'Sprouting dance on a bed of grass and sedum' - Carefull Art puts Utrecht artists on a very special map

“De afgelopen tweeënhalf jaar ben ik keuzes gaan maken. Waar ik tien jaar geleden bedacht om als dansdocent het leven in te gaan, is het nu de vraag: wil ik dat eigenlijk wel? Waar word ik blij van, wat wil ik graag delen met de mensen om mij heen?” Voor Lotte Willemsma waren de eerste twee jaar van de Corona-pandemie… 

I was in Sander Schimmelpenninck's country and didn't just see fascists

Almelo has been on the map for a few years now thanks to theatre. I went to see Van Katoen en Water on Thursday, an open-air spectacle with well-timed downpour and a full-moon rise like you can only experience in the almost gentrified old-industrial heart of Twente's poorest city. Mashed potatoes were served beforehand, with a johmas salad. Wine flowed profusely. In... 

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