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PODIUM ART

Alles waarvoor mensen een podium betreden.

Tantalising intimacy porn in 'Privacy' raises relevant questions #HF16

Wine Dierickx ( Wunderbaum) and Ward Weemhoff (The Hot Shop) are an artist couple and we will know it. Engaging and with humour, they take us into their private lives or that which we think that is their private life. Know after all, we don't do it.

McBurney's The Encounter points visitor #HF16 to a different way of life

The Encounter, a large-scale solo performance by British multi-talent Simon McBurney, had its Dutch premiere at the Holland Festival on Thursday. The Encounter combines the dramatic power of a Hollywood blockbuster with the polished simplicity of 20th-century, stripped-down, edited - call it Brechtian - theatre.

Thoughts as fuel for space travel

No actor to be seen in the auditorium of Theatre de Veste in Delft. Just a house with walls and roof of transparent cloth. It holds thirty people. On the walls of the hall around it, projected images pass by at whirling speed. This is fascinating: usually, when you are in a house, the walls close you off from the surroundings, but this time they actually give a view of a world as big and beautiful as you never experience in ordinary life.

The Walking Forest is performance you definitely want to watch twice (HF16)

De Braziliaanse Christiane Jatahy was vorig jaar al met het stuk What If they went to Moscow op het Holland Festival. Ze kwam, zag en overwon. Dit jaar komt ze met het laatste deel uit de trilogie van toneeladaptaties, The Walking Forest. De titel verwijst naar de drie heksen in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, die zijn opkomst en ondergang voorspellen. Het stuk vormde het uitgangspunt voor een performance met vier videoschermen, een bar, een actrice, een dode vis en, o ja, publiek.

Meg Stuarts ‘Sketches/Notebook’ bevrijdt ons van verbeten individualisme (HF16)

Vanaf scène 1 neemt ‘Sketches/Notebook’ van Meg Stuart en haar groep Damaged Goods het publiek op in een overvloed aan belevenissen. Vooroverbuigen en snelle draaibewegingen maken. Met een lamp zwaaien en enkele medeperformers in een lichtkring zetten. Figuren maken met je handen. Stenen op de vloer leggen en er aandachtig omheen lopen. Uit rijk gevulde kledingrekken kiezen om een kleurige, bizarre creatie van jezelf te maken. Een muur rond jezelf optrekken en dan kijken wat de ander ermee doet: nadoen, verplaatsen, afbreken, oplossen in de ruimte. Spelen met lichtbundels en touw. Rondrennen. Springen op de plaats. Wild roffelen op en drumstel. Lang aanhoudende muzikale motieven.

Sketches-Notebook-©-Iris-Janke-2-

 

From choreografe Meg Stuart is al vaker werk in het Holland Festival te zien geweest: ‘Alibi’ (2002) en ‘Forgeries, Love and Other Matters’ (2004). Dit jaar verrast ‘Sketches/Notebook’, omdat het werk speelser en lichter is dan haar eerdere werk.

Harrison Birtwistle: van schokkend naar keelsnoerend muziektheater

In zijn jeugd was Harrison Birtwistle (1934) een van de Angry Young Men van de Engelse muziek, inmiddels is hij in de adelstand verheven en gaat hij als ‘Sir Harry’ door het leven. Hij werd opgeleid  als klarinettist en componist aan the Royal College of Music in Manchester, waar hij zich ergerde aan het behoudende klimaat. Samen met John Ogden,… 

This is more than a review of the opening of the Holland Festival

On Saturday 4 June 2016, I attended the royal opening of the Holland Festival and was able to attend no review write about, because I was sitting in the front row of the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg. As the stage was elevated, I was looking against a black wall, above which only the front actors were visible. The back and lower half of the stage were completely eluding me.

Me wrote that on, and the Holland Festival generously offered me the opportunity to go and see the performance again, from a better seat. At the same time, the organisers told me that the first three rows of the Stadsschouwburg would be compensated at this performance. So I went to Amsterdam one more time, on Monday 6 June.

Before the performance, while not eating a blackened hamburger in theatre restaurant Stanislavski, I heard from the neat people at the little table next to me that the front seats were offered at a sharply reduced rate, and that people like them who had already bought tickets had the choice of thus getting a partial refund or going on the waiting list for a seat with better sightlines. Whether they eventually managed to get one of the spots with better visibility, I don't know. The performance

Stop-Acting-Now-©-Wunderbaum

Wunderbaum sows beautiful doubt in Mijke de Jong's 'Stop Acting Now' (HF16)

Wunderbaum. Among lovers of fresh and young theatre, this collective of creators stirred something up at the beginning of this century. They were born and bred under the wings of Johan Simons, where they formed the youth team of his legendary theatre group Hollandia. And because back then, every young maker really had to do something with the world, JongHollandia, later Wunderbaum, wanted the same. But because they lived in the post-ideological era and saw every day how the ideals of their teachers, parents and mentors came to nothing, it mainly became a club of doubters. And they were very good at that.

This is not a review of the opening of the Holland Festival (HF16)

So you can get too close to a work of art. I don't even know if it really applies to paintings, that toxic fumes can rise from them, as some claim, but it certainly applies to theatre art. During the opening of the Holland Festival 2016, I was sitting in the front row of the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg. Normally already not the best place for those who want to keep a bit of an overview of what is happening on stage. For the occasion of 'Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wussten', the stage had also been raised by half a metre, which meant I spent about four-fifths of the time watching actors' heads bounce over a light rail.

Louis Andriessen: 'I've never found a new sound'

For Theatre of the World, his fifth full-length opera, Louis Andriessen (1939) drew inspiration from the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680). He was the last Renaissance man, someone who could do everything and knew everything. Kircher wrote books full of the most diverse subjects, from the meaning of hieroglyphics to vulcanology and musical instruments. He even designed a cat piano, based on the idea that each cat screams at a different pitch when you tap its tail. After his death, Kircher fell into disrepute as a charlatan.

However, unusable for science, he forms gefundenes Fressen for a composer like Andriessen, who likes to explore the boundaries between reality and fiction. His opera Writing to Vermeer (1999) is based on fictional letters to the Delft painter; Rosa, a Horse Drama (1994) is about the murder of a composer, allegedly part of a conspiracy against music.

Meg Stuart at Holland Festival: 'The sacred theatre is gone, but the expectations remain.'(HF16)

The show Sketches/Notebook (2013), which has its Dutch premiere at the Holland Festival on 6 June, is virtuosic, radical and extremely gentle. Choreographer Meg Stuart loves small scale, even when she occupies the biggest stages with partners like the Volksbühne (Berlin), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris) or the Münchner Kammerspiele. Details win out over big lines and often play a leading role in pieces that scrutinise human behaviour incredulously.

Sketches/Notebook stands out

Componist Marie Jaëll: Franse flair, Russische dramatiek

Had zij Marc geheten, dan gold Marie Jaëll (1846-1925) ongetwijfeld als een van de belangrijke Franse componisten van eind negentiende, begin twintigste eeuw. Maar ja, ze was nu een keer een vrouw – dus onbelangrijk. Tijdens haar leven geroemd door niemand minder dan Franz Liszt, werd ze na haar dood al snel vergeten. Hooguit leefde zij voort in de door… 

Suzanna Jansen on Pauper Paradise: 'Poverty still leads to isolation'

The garish signs KEUKENHOF keep on whizzing past café Foolish Business, on a very sticky Tuesday morning. Hordes of tourists throng behind them, ready to spend money on picturesque pictures and unique experiences. My interest today is in the opposite, the desolate 19the century colonies in Drenthe, then called 'Dutch Siberia'. To me, Drenthe is known as ' a cyclist's paradise' but writer Suzanna Jansen wrote the 2008 bestseller The Pauper's Paradise about, in which she meticulously traced her family's history back five generations.

She is wearing a summery blue dress and is in transit to the 'crime scene' of our conversation, Veenhuizen, to drive past her 'favourite places' with RTV Drenthe. This is a tad ironic, since she knows Drenthe mainly through her ancestors, who lived and died under miserable conditions in the colonies.

15 June 2016 goes there in Veenhuizen theatre show The Pauper's Paradise   premiered in the courtyard of the Gevangenis Museum, about 'one of the most dramatic hidden histories in the Netherlands'.

Pauper image without text

As many as 1 million Dutch Descend from Veenhuizen customers[hints]From the registers reveals that Ruud Lubbers, Geert Mak and Alexander Pechtold, Thea Beckmann, Anton Pieck and Bert Haanstra, among others, are related to paupers from the 19th-century poor colonies[/hints].

Art in the pincers. Why theatres do have to come up with jubilant figures.

Een week geleden presenteerden de schouwburgen aangesloten bij de VSCD  tijdens het jaarlijkse congres mooie figures. Het aantal voorstellingen daalde weliswaar, maar de gemiddelde zaalbezetting was andermaal gestegen. Menigeen in de sector fronste de wenkbrauwen, en na enig narekenen kwam Wijbrand Schaap na aanvankelijk positief nieuws tot de conclusie dat het helemaal not zo goed gaat met de podiumkunsten. En ook op dat bericht is weer kritiek mogelijk; de VSCD omvat niet alle theaters, sommige zijn gefuseerd etc. Weer een dag later legde Jeffrey Meulman in zijn blog de vinger op de zere plek:

Forgotten Dutch operas at Kröller-Müller

The Kröller-Müller Museum does not immediately associate you with classical music. Yet on Sunday afternoon, 29 May, I attended a concert at this institution located in the Veluwe forests. It was organised by the Helene Kröller-Müller Fund in association with 401 Dutch operas. This organisation aims to bring forgotten and never-performed opera' from the Netherlands and Flanders (back) into the spotlight. On this occasion, arias and duets were performed from the period when Helene Kröller-Müller (1869-1939) built the art collection of the museum named after her.

Helene Kröller-Müller
Helene Kröller-Müller

Dutch music of the late nineteenth, early twentieth century seems hot again.

Seks tot kunst verheven tijdens SPRING

Tongzoenen, paaldansen, voorbinddildo’s en anale penetratie associeer ik doorgaans niet met de danskunst en verwacht ik niet in een stadsschouwburg, maar voor Florentina Holzinger en Vincent Riebeek lijkt niks te gek. “Europa’s meest provocatieve performance duo” – in de woorden van Rainer Hofmann, artistiek directeur van Spring festival – liet zich voor ‘Schönheitsabend‘ inspireren door hun voorgangers, die begin 20e eeuw de dans opnieuw uitvonden met taboedoorbrekende choreografieën. In drie aktes presenteren Holzinger en Riebeek zichzelf als voortzetters van die traditie en zoeken ze de grenzen op van het theater.

Joel Pommerat: 'History does not repeat itself. Instead, we can learn from it.' (HF16)

One of the special performances at this year's Holland Festival is 'Ça Ira (1): Fin de Louis' by French company Compagnie Louis Brouillard. I visited the performance earlier in Luxembourg and spoke to the director and writer of this over four-hour marathon about the French Revolution. It seems quite something: 40 actors on stage... 

Figures don't lie: Dutch venues are doing badly

Het zal aan mijn onverwoestbare humeur hebben gelegen, en aan de diepe behoefte om nu eens eindelijk goed nieuws te brengen over de culturele sector, maar ik had het dus fout. Dinsdag meldde ik dat de podiumkunsten er weer bovenop aan het komen waren, na de draconische bezuinigingen van Halbe Zijlstra, maar dat is dus niet zo. Hoe graag de sector zelf ook graag wil dat het goed gaat, de cijfers spreken het keer op keer weer tegen.

De Vereniging van Schouwburg en Concertgebouw Directies heeft ons allemaal toch weer een beetje in het ootje genomen. Met een heuse infographic nog wel. Maar, zoals dat gaat met infographics: je kunt er nog zoveel vrolijke kleurtjes en kreetjes in zetten, en onderop zelfs ‘Bravo!’ en ‘Applaus!’roepen, de cijfers zelf liegen niet, ook al presenteer je ze net even iets anders dan vorig jaar.

Choreograaf Jan Martens op Spring: ‘Ik hou iedere keer m’n hart vast, hoe het uitpakt.’

De nieuwe voorstelling van choreograaf Jan Martens, The Common People, is dit weekend in Utrecht te zien tijdens Spring. Tientallen vrijwillige performers hebben een blind date op het podium van de grote zaal van de Stadsschouwburg. Het publiek kan tussendoor in en uit lopen, een biertje drinken voor de duur van een of meerdere duetten of op het achterpodium grasduinen en… 

Theatres are doing better and better: 6 lessons from the VSCD @congresPK

On Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 May, the VSCD met, and the Congres Podiumkunsten (@congresPK) was going on at the Nijmegen Concert Hall De Vereeniging. I went to check it out and discovered some new things.

1 The eminent gentlemen are gone.

Things have changed in Dutch theatre since the beginning of this century. Somewhere around the year 2000, I was a guest at a meeting of the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors, and it was a bizarre experience. I found myself among a gathering that could best be described as a gentlemen's club, where the number of upstanding municipal officials exceeded the number of artistically inspired theatre lovers.

Now, 16 years later,

Festival Spring opent met teleurstellend stuk van Nicole Beutler

De eer om het Utrechtse dans- en performancefestival SPRING te openen, viel dit jaar te beurt aan choreograaf Nicole Beutler[hints]Nicole Beutler (München, 1969) is choreograaf en theatermaker. Na een studie Beeldende Kunst aan de Kunstacademie (Münster en München) kwam zij naar Amsterdam voor de School voor Nieuwe Dansontwikkeling van de AHK, waar zij in 1997 afstudeerde. Haar werk bevindt zich op het grensvlak van beeldende kunst, theater en dans(Source)[/hints]. De voorstelling 6: The Square vertoont een onnavolgbare fascinatie voor het dansen en denken in vierkanten. Squaredance, een vooral in Amerika populaire, zeer oude volksdanstraditie in koppels, en de futuristische functionaliteit van Bauhaus worden in deze choreografie verbonden met gedachten over orde scheppen en hokjesgeest. Hoe precies

Joop Daalmeijer Erdoğan, Miranda van Kralingen Davutoğlu?

"For someone to interfere with an artistic interpretation, I find that quite hefty. Let me put it this way: you have this prime minister in Turkey... To interfere with something artistic, I find that rather hefty." This was stated by Emil Szarkowicz, musician and cultural editor from Limburg, in a broadcast by regional broadcaster L1 yesterday, Reason being the negative opinion of... 

Samir Calixto in M bij Korzo

Choreograaf Samir Calixto opent fascinerend universum in M

Ga er maar eens aan staan om Nietzsches boek Also sprach Zarathustra in dans uit te drukken. Maar de Braziliaanse choreograaf Samir Calixto kan het. Door zich te focussen op een gedicht uit het complexe boek: het Lied van Middernacht. Dat is meteen al de reden voor de titel M: Middernacht. Of Mensch, of Mythe. Of Mahler. Of Metafysisch. Je… 

Atelier Infini. Bosquet

Peerless: 15 stories about refugees, in 49 draws and old set paintings

This is a review of a performance that is already over, and which, moreover, I participated in myself. That's not allowed at all. But it's also a story about refugees in Europe, a theatre floating above the clouds, a church made of marzipan, tunnels in Palestine and 49 draws. So I'm doing it anyway.

Last weekend, during the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, a miracle happened at the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels. Scenographer Jozef Wouters and his crew had settled in the old hall with its domed roof. Completely renovated ten years ago, 'de Bol' is now an old-fashioned frame theatre equipped with the latest theatre technology. Including those 49 draws, and that was what it was all about.

On a pull,

Culture Council fill-in exercise offers hardly any surprises

Champagne at BAK in Utrecht, deep disappointment at The New Institute in Rotterdam: the Council for Culture has spoken. Today, Thursday 19 May 2016, the first advice after the draconian art cuts by the first Rutte cabinet came out, and heads are rolling. Amsterdam loses prestigious presentation institution De Appel, in The Hague fellow institution Stroom has to redo its homework. The Orkest van het Oosten and the Gelders Orkest have to come up with merger plans within two years. In Utrecht, the city company Theater Utrecht will no longer receive funding despite artistic appreciation. Het Zuidelijk Toneel in Eindhoven Tilburg must make new plans and Opera Zuid must quickly raise its artistic quality. These are the main conclusions of the Culture Council's opinion.

As dramatic as some of this may sound, the advice is actually not, when you look over the whole battlefield. Thanks in part to

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