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THEATER

With text, movement, actors, sets.

Old Gangsters Never Die, festival hit in the making

A fearsome roar announces the emergence of action-hero Chuck. And there really is no one who can come on so cool in a cart, half all-terrain vehicle and half golf cart, as Ko van de Bosch. With his too-long, too-grey hair in a ponytail and too-brown body in a black-leather motorbike suit, he immediately epitomises youth at... 

The Nation at the Holland festival: a theatre addiction in the making #HF17

Netflix and HBO are now purveyors of our conversations with friends, family and colleagues. The ultimate icebreaker at a party with strangers is talking about series, about beloved characters. Is Jon Snow still alive? Where is Barb? Having seen the first two working performances of 'The Nation', I have a strong impression that in Eric de Vroedt I have a fellow lover... 

Zvizdal - Chernobyl so far so close, by Berlin/The Zuidelijk Toneel

Do you want the audience back, Sarah Sluimer? Then give it back to the actors.

In the Volkskrant of 8 May 2017, Sarah Sluimer lets loose. The opinion maker (for Volkskrant and De Correspondent, among others) used to be a theatre maker and now wonders aloud why she is a bit done with theatre. Because she actually writes that down. I quote: 'I breathed theatre. I ate performances and was convinced that what was there,... 

7 ways to make art out of US democracy. #HF17

The play La Democrazia in America (to be seen at the Holland Festival on 4, 5 and 6 June) is of course about democracy in America, but actually more about The Democracy in America. And the two should not be confused. For The Democracy in America is a 1,200-page book by French jurist De Tocqueville. This... 

About directionless hipsters, their parents, and the war in Europe (coming) #HF17

Vincent Macaigne is uncomfortable. He looks around nervously every time the waitresses run past with trays full of clinking glasses and slam the doors. He has barely slept, and the previous evening he had walloped the audience of the Swiss Theatre Vidy with his brutal, inimitable performance En Manque. Braced, he sat down for the interview. "Sorry, I... 

Joris Smit in Tasso, photo Kurt van der Elst

Joris Smit on Tasso and Joan of Arc: no theatre that puts the audience to bed

The National Theatre plays Jeanne d'Arc by Friedrich Schiller and simultaneously retakes Johann Goethe's Tasso. Joris Smit plays in both plays, even the title role in Tasso. We talk to him about German romantics, Sallie Harmsen, the new-fangled National Theatre and the importance of going down on your face. Tasso and Jeanne, Goethe and Schiller. Is German romance... 

Beef heart ragout and handshake. Cultural capital reinvents church service

Maybe God is dead, but His church is alive. At least in Denmark. This has to do with what you might call the Danish paradox of faith: a highly secularised society with a Lutheran Folkekirke (=Volkskerk) supported by a large majority of the population [hints]The American sociologist Phil Zuckerman has commented on this aspect of Denmark (and also a little... 

Are we still capable of having a real opinion?

I read the biography of Jacob Israel De Haan, Onrust, by Jan Fontijn. Writer and director Gerardjan Rijnders based Salaam Jerusalem on this biography. It is this play, performed by De Nieuw Amsterdam, that really makes me realise how urgent it is to let such an almost forgotten figure as De Haan speak. Jacob Israel De Haan overturned taboos, fought... 

7 reasons why you should invest in Holland Festival 2017 #hf17

Ruth Mackenzie has achieved an enormous amount in the short time she has been boss of Holland Festival. I've experienced the festival now since the late 1990s and watched it evolve from something very personal and sometimes obscure (under Ivo van Hove), to an ethereal feast of sizzling aesthetics (with Pierre Audi), to what it... 

'But everyone actually wants to die, don't they?'

Actress and cabaret performer Yora Rienstra (35) knows at first hand what depression can do to a person's life: her grandmother was manic-depressive. That is why she agreed when she was asked to perform in the solo show PAAZ, even though after seven years of cabaret she did not want to be on stage alone again. 'But I found Myrthe van der Meer's book... 

CCD Award 2017: cast your vote NOW!

De vijf genomineerden voor de CCD Award 2017 zijn Hamlet van ZEP Theater Producties, Festival Mundial, Ongekend Bijzonder Festival 2016, Project Old Skool van Stichting Gebouw 52 en het Van Abbemuseum. Het publiek kan vanaf nu tot 18 januari 2017 haar stem uitbrengen via deze link. De jury neem de publieksstem mee in haar afweging. De prijs van € 5000,- wordt… 

Seven shows you wish you had seen in 2016 (but don't give up hope)

In The Hague, they think it's a waste of money. Let them. Here are seven performances that were more than worth 'that sin'. Mona, Ariadne, Mariken, but also breathtaking circus theatre, a secret marriage, genre-transcending satire and the greatest set ever. Mona, NTJong (youth theatre/drama) 1. It is the biggest pitfall of the age indication in theatre performances. Put 6+ and you... 

Huub van der Lubbe and Christine Otten on love in times of racial hatred

We Had Love, We Had Guns by Christine Otten is about black resistance fighter Robert F. Williams, who fought for black equality. In the theatre adaptation of the same name, white actors - including Huub van der Lubbe - play black characters and vice versa. Double talk about personal sacrifice, skin colour and connection. Idlewild It is a remarkable coincidence. America is taking... 

The sign language interpreters sob along

Chris Keulemans visited the 5D InHuis Festival and was deeply impressed by what people with disabilities managed to achieve in theatre. Here is his report, for under the Christmas tree. About humour without pity, and totally unexpected displays of muscle. - Was Thomas born that way? - Well, I don't think he cut his legs himself... The jokers... 

Press release: Culture Press becomes part of The Cooperative / Reporters Online

On 20 December, the general membership meeting of Coöperatief Cultureel Persbureau unanimously decided to accept a cooperation offer from The Co-operative/House of Journalism and Reporters Online. This is an important step in the development of independent cultural journalism. Culture Press, as the Cooperative Cultural Press Agency is known on the internet and social media, is growing significantly as a result. The... 

Polyptych, Lada Hrsak, Misericordia, Old Church, 2016.

Old Church in search of contemporary forms of charity and mercy

Amsterdam's oldest and perhaps most beautiful building combines quite a few functions. Although tourists are dominant these days, believers still celebrate the love of God there every week. And even though the former Nicolaaskerk no longer provides space for fishermen to mend their nets, organ concerts are still given there, since the fourteenth century. Handing out bread is not... 

Reasons to do go to theatre Kikker (1: The Men's Night Out)

Despite the crisis in the performing arts, there is still a lot of young talent roaming the Netherlands and beyond. So much that keeping track is impossible. After all, who can visit all the festivals, from Festival Boulevard to Noorderzon, from the Café Theatre Festival to Festival Cement and from the Amsterdam Fringe Festival to the Zeeland Nazomerfestival? And then also exactly those four or five performances from the... 

These five shows you really want to see in December

I tell you here why you should go to see Parsifal, and not even just because of the object by Anish Kapoor that plays a part in it. And you could also go to theatre one day, by the way. With The Girls. Fel theatre by our very best theatre company (according to Americans). The National Opera, Parsifal (opera) Four years ago, I attended Pierre Audi's... 

5 reasons to avoid (or not) Theatre Kikker's Winter Collection

From 6 December, theatre Kikker will show a week-long anthology of talented and diverse young theatre makers. We looked ahead to this Winter Collection. Hannah Roelofs, herself just over 30, issues five warnings for people over 29. 1. Twenty-somethings! 'This is the generation that's losing his or her... 

Meg Stuart throws very ordinary bodies into the fray

Meg Stuart's two-hour heroic epic Until Our Hearts Stop, showing at the Rotterdam Schouwburg this week, does not engage in dramatic construction according to the rules of Aristotle's Poetics. We don't know who those people are there on stage. Nor do they seem to have been given any special assignment, although they are clearly being... 

'Holy F': nimble grappling with feminism is overpowering

The show Holy F opens with an audition. Two young women present themselves to a director - a man. They pronounce their phrases impeccably simultaneous, with the sweet tone men like to hear. Their confusion grows. Do they really understand what the director wants from them? Can they handle the role they aspire to? Playing a strong woman: is... 

Hall view of Zvizdal. Photo: Frederik Buyckx

Unique theatre documentary 'Zvizdal' to be seen only a few times in the Netherlands

Zvizdal, the documentary theatre portrait of Pétro and Nadia filmed by Berlin between 2011 and 2016, is not only in Paris, Ghent and Athens. This moving story can also be seen in the Netherlands until 11 November 2016. Near the place where an atomic experiment failed in 1986, Berlin and Zvizdal tell a moving story about an old peasant couple. They remained as... 

Alum learned the trade in the pub, the best place for any theatre talent

Theatre group Aluin celebrates its 25th anniversary. The company, which originated at the Utrecht acting school, celebrated at the place where it all started: Utrecht's Theatercafé De Bastaard. On Sunday 23 October, they reprised their first ever performance, a play entitled 'It', based on the novella The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James. About a man who thinks he is destined... 

Our actors are burnt out, audiences have lost their way. Save the theatre!

This play is going to cost me a lot of friends, but it needs to get out. After all, the theatre industry is doing badly. And I can see more and more clearly where that is due to. And for once it's not Halbe Zijlstra. Or the VVD, or the population, or the Netherlands in general, or the zeitgeist. And it's not because of Netflix either... 

'Eyes Wide Shut': Film and book battle on stage, and music wins

'Let me lament my fate in tears. And let me long for freedom.' What would my preference be: book, film or play? That question fascinated me when it turned out that Toneelgroep Maastricht had adapted Arthur Schnitzler's book Droomnovelle and Stanley Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut based on it into a new play. Actually, it was not a fair... 

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