All about politics, policy, society and how those things relate to culture and art.
They are quite the characters, the main characters in the books of Jeroen Olyslaegers (55). Laughingly, he talks about Wilfried Wils, the protagonist of his 2016 bestseller Wil, who never stopped talking to his creator. 'He kept commenting. I hadn't experienced a book staying alive like that before. When the book was awarded...
Make it beautiful is the title of his new novel, but actually it was a book Thomas Verbogt (69) had been carrying around inside for many years. Now that it has finally been written, he feels lighter. Good person How can you be of essential importance to another person? And what do you have to do to be a good person?....
A temperature record will be broken in the Netherlands on 28 October. Yet another, and it is indeed incomprehensible that on this day people still book a plane for a weekend in Barcelona. It is unfortunately also incomprehensible that on this 27th October 2022, a young man sticks his head next to the head of The Girl with the...
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...
There he sits, at the top, enjoying the view. Camiel Corneille has just conquered his own work, a hellish instrument made of a four-by-four wooden plate that can turn in all directions except the right one. A moving balance beam that can also give you a big whack. Camiel Corneille designed it himself and tackles the thing...
After another year of dreaming and planning, the 10th edition of Festival Circolo - the largest circus festival in the Netherlands - is finally here today! Until Sunday 30 October, Tilburg's Spoorpark will transform into an oasis full of spectacle, acrobatics and humour. The opening shot was given on 20 October 2022 at 20:00h by two circus performers...
L'Histoire du Soldat, Stravinsky's famous work, has been performed in many performances. But never before as in this new production by Tilburg-based orchestra Kamerata Zuid i.c.w. performer Inez Wolters. Dressed in extravagant costumes, she interprets the various characters in this musical tale. Together with live music by Kamerata Zuid and input from circus performer Júlia Campistany, this...
Seven years after her acclaimed debut novel Muidhond, Inge Schilperoord's new book is published. She delved into the experiences of a young Dutch girl attracted to the Islamic faith. When Inge Schilperoord (49) was a forensic psychologist in 2017, she spent time providing psychological examinations at the terrorist ward of a prison, where people suspected of having ties...
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...
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...
Festival Circolo presents a special performance at four special locations in Tilburg in the run-up to the largest festival for contemporary circus in the Netherlands. 'Circus is my way of dreaming and giving hope. To live fully, whatever the conditions'. Jesse Huygh is a circus performer and suffers from cystic fibrosis, or cystic fibrosis, a genetic lung disease. Despite his illness,...
Fourteen years after the death of her Jewish mother, presenter Dieuwertje Blok found her war diary. With her debut Dragging Lightness, Blok pays a warm tribute to the woman who gave her life. A profession in the spotlight - Dieuwertje Blok is no stranger to it. Her grandmother Saartje, who as the daughter of fishmongers grew up in the Joden Houttuinen...
For her new novel The Taxman, Ariëlla Kornmehl did not have to look far for her inspiration. From one day to the next, she herself became a protagonist in a story, as it turned out that her tax consultant harboured a silent obsession for her. "When I read all those observations about myself, I was in shock," she says. After the publication
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 -...
On Sunday 23 October 2022 at 3pm, Time Runs will premiere at the Chassé Theatre in Breda. Time Runs is a performance for children aged 4 and up. After the premiere, the show will tour Dutch theatres. The performance What time is it? Is this the right time? Do you have time for me? It was...
What is the difference between a translation and an adaptation? In prose and poetry, every word and comma is translated, but it is different in theatre and stage adaptations. What freedoms do director and translator dare to take when adapting Shakespeare, for instance? These questions are at the heart of the latest edition of the illustrious programme on translation and all things...
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...
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...
Two museums for the price of one. With a Mona Lisa in the making. 20 km from the Dutch border. Which is more beautiful? The building or the collection? Last weekend, Antwerp's Royal Museum of Fine Arts reopened after no less than 11 years. And that resonates far beyond the port city. I walk inside with a Danish art historian,...
"Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have started making choices. Where ten years ago I thought of going into life as a dance teacher, now the question is: do I really want to? What makes me happy, what do I want to share with the people around me?" For Lotte Willemsma, the first two years of the Corona pandemic were...
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...
The Amsterdam Museum has teamed up with VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute for Conservation+Art+Science+ (NICAS) and Naturalis Biodiversity Centre to research the origins of the gold of the Golden Coach. For a long time, it was unknown where the gold leaf used to gild the carriage came from. An extensive study compared the composition of the gold with samples from Suriname and South Africa....
Alex Mallems, the artistic director who put Zeeland on the map in this century (since 2001), has left both the Zeeland Nazomer festival and its associated production house Zeelandia. This is the outcome of a protracted conflict with the business director appointed since last year, Sylvie Dees. According to a report in Theaterkrant, according to Dees, he would 'without permission make commitments...
Sommige dingen die vroeger leuk waren, kunnen nu niet meer. Dingen als roken in de klas, posters van David Hamilton op de studentenkamer, vrouwen onderbetalen, autorijden met een fles jenever achter de kiezen, you name it. Deze week kwam daar een interessant relletje bij. Het Amsterdam Fringe Festival, het ondeugende zusje van het Nederlands Theaterfestival, koos een campagnebeeld dat, naar…
Ik zeg toch sorry a theatre performance by Theatre Group Aluin and Raymi Sambo Makes about Keti Koti, the day celebrating the (official) abolition of slavery, will be shown in Dutch theatres from the end of September. At a time when more and more municipalities and organisations are openly apologising for the slavery past or letting their own role in this period be...
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