THEATER
With text, movement, actors, sets.
Maas Theatre and Dance's Greeks: compelling and bewildering for young and old alike
First story. A naked king crawls at the feet of a woman. She is much taller than him, a goddess. High above him, she holds a bunch of grapes in her hand. Hungry he is! He wants those grapes, all of them. His body is vulnerable. It seems to shiver in the open air. But when it comes to the coveted food, he fetches...
Meppelgate! (2): Living in Meppel is also a choice.
You could wait for it. Meppelgate. Marieke Heebink, top actress with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, had the audacity to say in the newspaper that she is happy to be in a sold-out 'Angels in America' in New York. "Thank God I don't have to go to Meppel" she says. Aj. Aj. How dare she! That is guaranteed to generate angry reactions. And not just from Meppel....
Drama about art: to do or not to do? Ivo van Hove and Sallie Harmsen think so.
The National Theatre will premiere Blueprint for an Even Better Life on 8 November 2014, which addresses, among other things, the position of artists in society. A theme that also featured in their recent Tasso, and in Toneelgroep Amsterdam's successful The Fountainhead. Is the subject of art back on the theatre agenda due to the changed cultural politics of the past...
'I feel the need to make everything right in the world stronger than ever.' Laura van Dolron on 'Loving'
Previously, her performance allowed her to think heartbreakingly through love, infatuation and heartbreak. Now her performance is about love in the broadest possible sense. Earlier, she made theatre in which she wrestled with questions. Now she shows that struggle much less and shares the answers she has found with the audience. Earlier, she could still claim...
Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (7): 'If the knowledge is lost, so is the heritage.'
Wijbrand Schaap: 'Just one more point. Then we're almost through.' Joop Daalmeijer: 'Continue quietly, we have until half past five.' Wijbrand Schaap: 'We have a problem with real estate. A lot of inner cities are empty. Shop premises are empty, downtown office buildings are unrentable. What do the municipalities say? Put artists in them. Cost nothing, because for free rent they do...
Joop Daalmeijer Marathon (5) "All balls on Amsterdam", I'm not into that at all.
Wijbrand Schaap: 'Now on the role of cities. One of the reactions on our site is about the role of the randstad in cultural policy. Melle Daamen puts the primacy in the randstad, and goes further than the Council in this.' Marathon interviewAfter the uproar surrounding Melle Daamen's opinion piece on arts policy, we were invited to a 'conversation about...
Trump the judges. Decide who are the best actors in the Netherlands
Sunday is the Gala of Dutch Theatre. In a sober yet festive setting, the theatre sector celebrates the fact that it still exists. Quite an achievement, even if the minister doesn't think so. Be that as it may. We are going to present awards. And not Oscars, Olivers, or Césars, but Louis, Theo, Colombina and Arlecchino. How that came about? Tradition....
Proven: theatre-goers seek intellectual satisfaction and hardly ever read reviews
Drama reviews mainly fill a need among artists and journalists. Newspaper readers hardly use them. In London, this has been studied. Only 36 per cent of theatre-goers say they read reviews. Much more value fans place on tips from friends and family. Last Saturday at Amsterdam's De Balie debate centre, there was a discussion between theatre-makers,...
'Grandiose' opening Theatre Festival doesn't quite take away the pain
"Grand opening, right?" Jeffrey Meulman, the man who as director of the ailing Theatre Festival gave the word "inspired" a new dimension, was delighted. It was Thursday night, September 4, 2014. Shortly before, I had seriously considered jumping from the 1st balcony of the Stadsschouwburg, rather than applauding Tauerbach, the opening performance of The Theatre Festival. It is...
Three reasons to go to Medea
For the second consecutive year, the Festival of Early Music is organising a Laboratory, in which young creators can learn about their craft. This year's programme features Medea by Czech composer Georg Benda. This 'melodrama', an alternation of spoken text with music, was a resounding success at its premiere in 1775. Musicologist Jed Wentz and scholar Mary Helen Dupree revived it...
8 essential lessons Dutch theatres can learn from festivals - and vice versa
Declining visitor numbers, shrinking subsidies, impoverished programming: most Dutch theatres are struggling, research by NRC Handelsblad recently showed. Theatres welcomed 12 million visitors in 2012, according to NRC figures, a quarter less than in 2008. Festivals, on the other hand, are on the rise. More and more are being organised, and they are attracting more and more people - in total...
Johan Simons to Ruhr, Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Vienna, Ghent. And Varik.
He is the greatest director in the Netherlands. But also the least honourable theatre-maker we know: Johan Simons. The man whose star has been rising since the 1980s is now in Munich. But he is not staying there. After putting the local company Kammerspiele even more firmly on the map internationally, he is looking for new challenges. Den Bosch earlier reported...
Hamlet more in demand than Jay Z and Beyoncé. That can only happen in the UK
We are talking about the summer of 2015. Then Benedict Cumberbatch will play the title role in Hamlet, to be seen at the Barbican Centre in London. For the show, which plays for 12 weeks, 214% more tickets have already been sold in the first few hours after ticket sales opened yesterday than for Jay Z and Beyoncé's tour, which is on the same...
A performance that really makes you feel the futility of war. Demarrage by Charlotte Caeckaert on @tfboulevard
Flemish actors can speak. Flemish actors usually don't need microphones to make themselves understood over a storm, or from 100 metres away in the open air. Charlotte Caeckaert is one such actress who can do all that, and such technique is a joy to witness. She also writes lyrics, and that's where things go a little wrong....
Hearing stories of loss. And cry about it. But then? Separate from the Southern Theatre on @tfboulevard.
Two actors who, together with their director, want to create a performance about loss. Or rather: our fear of losing things, or people. The makers are not quite there yet, it turns out at Theatre Festival Boulevard. From numerous conversations with thinkers and (experiential) experts, they have distilled characters while improvising, which they - separated by a thick...
God has no humour. And his name is Frank. Days by Studio Gebroed on @tfboulevard
Nerd theatre with electric dings and funny little mechanisms. I love it. Seen something on a construction scaffold in the last century with a starring role for taunting bench sanders and droning derricks. I was hoping for something like this with Studio Gebroed's 'Days', but was a little disappointed. The premise is fun, of course: we follow a creator who, in a few days like this, creates a very nice...
What someone else's house does to you: Peeping by Lieke Benders on @tfboulevard
There were people who simply looked in the kitchen cupboards even though the guide expressly forbade it. That type of person, who probably also asks for ketchup at every meal, was one of the more interesting discoveries during the walk you could take in den Bosch, titled 'Peeping'. The performance is an example of 'experiential theatre': theatre without a clear storyline or message,...
Silent hakas, blood and grim nudity at The Crimson House
Princess Beatrix can take a punch in contemporary theatre. Just two years ago, she was in the audience (as queen) at The Life & Death of Marina Abramovic, and this year at The Crimson House by Lemi Ponifasio / MAU. Just about one of the most radical - because loud, raw and rather unfathomable - performances of this edition of the Holland Festival. We didn't quite get there, by the way, but
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