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THEATER

With text, movement, actors, sets.

Theatre Maas and Tobias Kokkelmans at ITA, screenshot television broadcast Mon 18 Sept 2023

The flash marriage between theatre and television could hardly be any shorter. Or could it?

15 minutes of television. Theatre Maas, who used to be called Cornald, has managed to get Dutch theatre's biggest party back on kind of prime time television. On Monday 18 September, we saw his recap of this gala of Dutch theatre, which included awards, snippets of speeches and elated actors. I wondered if we could... 

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MATZER Theatre Productions enters new theatre season with new corporate identity

MATZER Theatre Productions kicks off the new theatre season with a completely new corporate identity and website. The new identity reflects the company's development over the past four years. Since its foundation in 2007, MATZER, under the direction of Madeleine Matzer, has been creating theatre performances that are characterised by their stratification, social commitment and musicality. Starting with Nobody is Waiting for You in 2018, current events will get... 

Eric De Vroedt in State of the Theatre: 'We have to question the system we ourselves are part of.'

The hardest part of going back to work after the summer holidays are the holiday stories from colleagues. Or from yourself. That fantastic view, that unique campsite, that beautiful beach, that restaurant where you got the best food in the world for no money, that indigenous people you visited first with your tour bus. That moment of climate embarrassment that you had a few more... 

How can local culture reach a high level against the odds?

A major musical theatre performance, an adapted classical play, an opera and a painting festival. The small municipality of Noordwijk - like that other coastal municipality of Bergen - offers an abundance of culture. All four events rely heavily on talent, subsidies and donations, volunteers, pragmatic thrift. And good weather. Noordwijk aan Zee has been a more than average municipality for centuries. Famous Dutchmen... 

Nietzsche's packed furniture. photo: author

Diary Weimar (2): what would Nietzsche have thought of it (or his sister)?

I had - in a previous house - a neighbour who gave a young tree in front of our apartment complex a bucket of water every day. He had a thing for trees, as he had brought back some Sequoia seeds from a trip to the US, back in the day. He had put these in the ground in various places. One near the house, and that one, because of possible... 

Theaterplatz, Weimar. citizens of the city of Weimar read out all the names d=of the victims of Buchenwald, while Günther Uecker's cairns are being built (Photo: author)

Journal Kunstfest Weimar (1): elderly and fragile.

A lone madman? An unsuspecting visitor would think so, and when I arrived at the Theaterplatz in Weimar yesterday afternoon, I was that unsuspecting visitor. During the opening speeches of Kunstfest Weimar, a man shouted insulting texts at Bodo Ramelow, the prime minister of 'Free State of Thuringia'. The man dressed in a yellow vest was taken away by the police. Later, during a very bedraggled... 

It Takes A Child To Raise A Village, scene image by author.

Theatre festival #Boulevard pushes boundaries in an unexpected way

A festival is still the best way to get acquainted with new art. Yesterday, after six days of persistent drizzle and torrential rain, the sun finally broke through over Bossche Zuiderpark. Bartenders who had spent the first few days getting used to quietly serving those few customers who braved the rain for a white wine (because it was summer... 

Scenic photo by Kurt van der Elst

Life is wonderfully absurd, and Elias de Bruyne makes fine theatre about it.

In preparing my coverage of Theatre Festival Boulevard, I had also put 'interview with Elias de Bruyne' on my wish list. It didn't materialise, which is fortunate in retrospect, because Cornald Maas beat me to it. At least, Cornald Maas interviewed Elias de Bruyne during his performance 'Euhm... In 5 Acts', which premiered on Saturday 5 August. Well... 

Desire. Photo by Sofie Knijf

'Desire' is highlight of telling opening weekend of Theatre Festival Boulevard

"You can't say anything anymore either" is the title of a show by theatre friends George and Eran from Amsterdam-West. They have previously presented sensitive themes in a theatre form close to stand-up comedy, and so this programme is about the language battle. A language battle about which words are still appropriate, which stereotypes are still 'allowed' and... 

Yves Degryse by Koen Broos

Yves Degryse (Berlin) on the return of the legendary show 'Zvizdal' at #Theaterfestival Boulevard: "This really took me by my jacket"

Yves Degryse is one of the people behind the extraordinary Flemish company Berlin. Between 2011 and 2015, Berlin worked on the performance Zvizdal, largely shot in the 'forbidden zone' around the exploded Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. I saw the performance in 2016 in Den Bosch, during Festival Boulevard, and was 'blown away'. This year, it returns to Boulevard 

PR image Desire

Podcast! Louis Janssens on 'Desire': 'It's nice to be personal, but I don't want to make a diary play, so I also lie quite often.' #TFBOULEVARD

Louis Janssens is a young, ambitious theatre-maker from Flanders. With a string of rave reviews behind his name, he seems to have effortlessly found his place in the theatre world. This year, he is a prominent guest at Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. His latest play, 'Desire', will premiere at the Verkadefabriek on 3 August. The play highlights the delicate... 

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European apotheosis at Theatre Festival Boulevard: Two international networks celebrate highlight during festival

In recent years, Boulevard worked intensively within two networks with 20 European partner institutions on international cooperation within the performing arts, supported by 'Creative Europe'. Both projects are guests during this edition of Theatre Festival Boulevard, which can be called unique! Performing Gender - Dancing in Your Shoes celebrates its finale with the presentation of a number of community projects and a... 

image from the trailer of The Utility's performance Good Keep Money

Theatre maker exposes inequality: performance raises €101,332.80 in surplus capital

Utrecht - With the performance Good Gold Money, theatre maker Greg Nottrot (artistic director of the NUT) managed to raise €101,332.80 from his audience this spring. This production was received with high praise by both the press and the audience and responds to that strong feeling that ''something has to change'' from both the creator and the audience... 

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Theatre Group Alum: BOUDICA - Iron Age Warrior Queen premiering 29 September 2023

The latest Aluin production Boudica will premiere at Theatre Kikker in Utrecht on 29 September 2023. In this production, actor Jilles Flinterman tells the story of Boudica, the Celtic queen and Iron Age Warrior Queen, who to this day is seen as a symbol of female rage. If anything is written about women in... 

The Silence: A festival, premiere, dernière and summer

During the 7th edition of the Brabants International Children's Festival (BRIK), our latest performance Voor de Draad Ermee premiered and we presented Mankind with Paul van Kemenade and Stevko Busch for the last time. For the Wire With It premiered On Saturday 24 June, For the Wire With It premiered to a full house in the Chassé Theatre!.... 

Photo: Thomas, Sacha and Jos | Edit: Guy Vording

Theatre show 'Two old ladies' by Toon Tellegen at Boulevard Theatre Festival 

Theatre collective Thomas, Sacha and Jos creates performance about universal love After years of fruitful cooperation with master storyteller Toon Tellegen and several performances based on his work, theatre collective Thomas, Sacha and Jos will perform Two Little Old Ladies at this summer's Theatre Festival Boulevard. Tellegen's book consists of 43 love stories, each starring two little old ladies. Thomas, Sacha and Jos made a... 

Romana Peace links ongoing slavery to her personal suffering

Respect for the many resistance fighters against slavery connects Romana Peace in 'Time will teach us' with anger at 'the system' in which exploitation continues, and with the pains in her personal life. Lokay, a teenager still, flees from the plantation on St Maarten, is caught again and physically punished by the white owner: a breast cut off, she bled almost to death in hellish... 

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Greg Nottrot is a brilliant seller of dreams in Good Gold Money.

In Anton Chekhov's legendary play 'Seagull' (1896), the young, ambitious playwright Konstantin shoots a seagull. It is a symbolic act, giving 'wings' to his desperate love for the young actress Nina. On 29 June 2023, the no longer very young (40) actor, writer and storyteller Greg Nottrot stops every now and then to... 

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Tryater exchanges internationally on small theatre languages

On Thursday 29 June, a Tryater delegation will travel from Leeuwarden to Bautzen, Germany, where a robust three-day conference between international theatre companies will take place as part of the European minority language association phōnē. During the three days, politicians, linguists, minority language experts and theatre-makers talk to each other about the language situation, goals and challenges in diverse minority language areas. These days, companies from all over the world meet in... 

Sâlt - Bart Grietens

Tryater repeats Oerol hit Sâlt on mainland

The Tryater show Sâlt, created for Oerol and performed there until 18 June, is a hit at the Terschelling festival. After a quick sell-out, excellent reviews and a consistently moved audience, the Frisian theatre company decides to give the show a follow-up on shore, after the Fanfare theatre series the following theatre season. For the music from Sâlt, a performance of... 

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black-pr image

Holland Festival breaks fascinating new ground with old punk and Lithuanian rave.

Amy Winehouse is alive. Although perhaps we shouldn't call it life, as she stands in all her corpse-blue glory, looking bewildered at the audience in the Muziekgebouw for an hour. A bit like we know her from those tragic last concert recordings, where she was stiff with all the chemicals and liquid aids to perform a few last notes. She is now... 

Ed Atkins Photo by Kiasma

Poetic gem by Ed Atkins knows exactly how to strike a chord

That he prefers not to hear news about the weather, but that there were once people alive who he knew, and what the weather was like then, Ed Atkins cannot talk about that often enough. So he repeats that phrase endlessly. A 'loop', then, as we know it from music and video art. But performed live. Is... 

Photo: Fred Debrock

Hilarious debate drives and governance in HNT's Lowland

Heads fly together of practically educated old members of an association on the Weteringseplas where a driven entrepreneur comes to test floating homes, under local government siding with sustainability or the new money. On the car radio on the way to the performance, NPO Klassiek showed a Q&A with excellent biographer Sjeng Scheijen about choreographer Hans van... 

Ivo van Hove in 2020. Photo by Jan Versweyveld

IVO VAN HOVE STEPS DOWN AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ITA

Even though they are not yet members at ITA, let me pass on this press release. Because of its (inter)national importance. Coming: Ivo van Hove (1958) will end his role as artistic director of ITA on 1 September 2023. This means that he will then hand over his position as statutory director and artistic director. The Supervisory Board (BoS) intends to appoint Eline... 

ensemble Wuthering Heights. Photo: Steve Tanner

Glossy role for the bog in unprecedentedly perfect update of Wuthering Heights at Holland Festival

I can't resist mentioning it, because I think they were doing it for a reason, the dancers in the musical Wuthering Heights making really visible big rounds with their arms one time: this was a half-second reference to Kate Bush's world-changing 'windmill swings' in the music video to her legendary 1978 pop song. A subtle nod as in my... 

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