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theatre frog

A scene from ''The Rodin Project'' by Russell Maliphant.

Maliphant takes Rodin as rich inspiration for dance, but makes disappointing opening for latest Springdance Festival

by Maarten Baanders
20 April 201230 March 2022
3 min read
For members only, SPECIALS

The festival opens disappointingly with 'The Rodin Project'. The sculptor Rodin may be a challenging choice, but unfortunately choreographer Russell Maliphant is limited to imitating atmosphere and external pictures. Rodin worked from a distinct idea about matter. He was looking for how forms and movements detach themselves from matter. With his human figures and their gestures, he showed...

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Boiling Frog is a beautiful stage story

by Wijbrand Schaap
15 March 201230 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Peter de Graef is not only a wonderful actor, he can also tell compelling stories. He also brings that talent with him as a writer. So in Boiling Frog, the show now on tour in the Netherlands, there are six Peter de Graefs on stage, and that is no punishment. Especially not because those six Peter de Graefs also...

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This Cherry Garden by theatre group Keesen&Co is even much better than it looks anyway

by Wijbrand Schaap
11 January 20128 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

The good man himself lived to be barely 44. But on his deathbed, he thus wrote a play for which you have to be at least well over 50 and have experienced a lot if you want to do it justice as a director. So we are talking about Anton Chekhov and The Cherry Garden. And about Willlibrord Keesen, who in his now third...

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Eugénie Rebetez shows the alienating contrast of a woman who wants to be more and is also at peace with who she is

by Daniel Bertina
23 April 201130 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Eugénie Rebetez in 'Gina'. Photo: Augustin Rebetez.

Her full thighs clatter together. She shakes her bare arms, grinning at the trembling skin on her upper arms. She stomps furiously across the Theatre Kikker's playing floor, while her hefty body - dressed in a small, nondisguising black dress - emphatically bounces happily on all sides. You just have to dare. In her one-woman show 'Gina', Swiss theatre maker Eugénie Rebetez beyond all embarrassment. In the skin of Gina, Rebetez shows her own yearning for stardom, with plenty of self-mockery and absurdist humour. A quirky mishmash of mime, stand-up comedy, cabaret and contemporary dance.

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Yasmeen Godder lets contrast between frightened individual and roaring group animal linger too much in dancers' minds

by Daniel Bertina
20 April 201129 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

storm end come Itzik Giuli — Dancers by Yasmeen Godder - photo Itzik Giuli

She is on her knees. Shaking and trembling, she jerks backwards. With clawed fingers that seem to grasp at the void. Like a frightened cat. Shuffling, the dancer moves backwards in a semicircle on the white stage floor of Theatre Frog. One by one, the five others step onto the empty open stage, while the first dancer keeps looking anxiously at the audience. Thus begins 'Storm end come'. With this performance, Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder shows the overwhelming effects of fear on the bodies of her dancers. But it doesn't really get scary.

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Death Horse puts on bold shoes and waves goodbye to Shakespeare in 'Bye Bye'

by one of our members
21 March 201129 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Amsterdam-based company Dood Paard itself translated Shakespeare's 'Othello' and waves goodbye to the bard with 'Bye Bye'. The quirky collective performs a one-and-a-half-hour topical comedy of manners and soul mirror, in which pointing at 'The Other' is central. Shakespeare's plays are quite often performed quite reverently. . Moreover, the adored 'bard' from Stratford-upon-Avon has bestowed on the English language countless expressions that have come to...

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Ifigeneia had to die, according to the reconstruction by the jubilee Theatre Group Alum

by Wijbrand Schaap
29 January 201130 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

"That looks like a book series!" my wife spoke with some horror upon seeing the cover of 'The Revenge of Iphigenia'. And yes, it has to be said: in book format, the poster of Theatre Group Alum's latest theatre production is a bit too much of a stretch. From the A0 poster, you would never have thought so. Indeed: those posters of Alum, which...

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National Travel Opera possibly first victim of culture cuts

by one of our members
29 December 201030 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

The rapid austerity operation of at least 200 million on the cultural sector has yet to be fleshed out, but one thing is already clear. If it were up to state secretary Halbe Zijlstra, the National Reisopera, which operates from Enschede, would stand a good chance of being killed in that operation. His request for advice to the Culture Council, sent the week before Christmas, states the following:...

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What Bert Hana can do, you don't learn at any school: turn your own life into art. #njc10

by one of our members
31 October 201030 March 2022
2 min read
For members only, SPECIALS

Wonderful though theatre is. The closing night of the Autumn Collection festival made me realise once again that the best actors do not always make the best performance. Expressiveness depends on more than acting talent and a proven literary text.

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Two idols and lots of cute girls at Saturday's Autumn Collection #njc10

by one of our members
31 October 20108 July 2016
4 min read
SPECIALS

It stood out: what a lot of cute girls in Theatre Kikker. Could it be because of the programming? Now there were a lot of cute men to choose from on Saturday night. The tough acting beasts of FC Bergman, for instance, or the androgynous Nik van den Berg, or perhaps the seemingly sweet Bert Hana. And if not, there was always DJ Oscar Kocken,...

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The Homecoming: Matteo Simoni and Greg Timmermans on their club (FC Bergman) and their play. #njc10

by Wijbrand Schaap
30 October 201029 March 2022
1 min read
For members only, SPECIALS

The young Antwerp company FC Bergman performs Harold Pinter's classic play 'The Homecoming' in a completely unique, energetic and raw way. The Homecoming can be seen during Autumn Collection 2010 at Theatre Kikker on Saturday 30 October.

Bouncing along with the funny, touching, uncontrollable Ray in Renske van den Broek's musical theatre performance Fast Car #njc10

by one of our members
30 October 20108 July 2016
5 min read
SPECIALS

Irrepressible, funny, touching Fast Car Ray. A boy whose head is never still, who does not sleep, to whom everything comes in and who just cannot manage to love himself. His illness, Tourette's Syndrome, makes him delusional and desperate. Tick-tock. On and on, on and on. Like a racing car.

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'It's largely autobiographical': Bert Hana on Papadag's latest performances during #njc10

by Wijbrand Schaap
29 October 20108 July 2016
1 min read
SPECIALS

To be seen Friday 29 and Saturday 30 October for the last time in the Netherlands, during the Autumn Collection at Theater Kikker in Utrecht. After that, only in Cape Town.

Emke Idema has been baffled by food for years. In terms of action, that is.

by Wijbrand Schaap
28 October 20108 July 2016
1 min read
SPECIALS

Emke Idema plays The ins and outs of the hole in your head in Theatre Kikker's Autumn Collection on Wednesday 27 October and Thursday 28 October.

Sometimes a story is beautiful enough when told: Autoroute du Soleil by Leen Verheyen demonstrates that

by Wijbrand Schaap
27 October 201030 March 2022
2 min read
For members only, SPECIALS

Once upon a time, a very long time ago in a different country from today, there was a play about a boy from Bosnia who made crowds cry. Ad de Bont had not only written a sensitive story with Mirad, a boy from Bosnia, but he also found the perfect way to deliver that story. It from letters to and from a...

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Dodo beats Autumn 2010 collection

by one of our members
26 October 20108 July 2016
1 min read
SPECIALS

From Wednesday 27 October, the Dodo will cover the Autumn Collection 2010 from Theater Kikker in Utrecht.

GDMW: Seven learning moments about literature, Rotterdam, Utrecht and partying

by Wijbrand Schaap
24 October 20108 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

GDMW festival comes from the tube of the only literary magazine still doing a bit in the Netherlands: Passionate Magazine. A bit contrary, youthful but not juvenile and with an open eye to the many cultures in the city where it was founded: Rotterdam. The festival is a happy combo of literary content, happy poets, embarrassing displays and beer,...

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