Screen Daily brought the news a fortnight ago that the International Film Festival Rotterdam is going to restructure. Not surprising after two corona years: this has hit every festival, every cultural institution, hard. It became worrying when in recent days social media was full of reports of mass layoffs at the IFFR. All senior programmers were supposedly fired. Because...
Once upon a time, Ben Frost started out as a composer of laden ambient music. Not necessarily upbeat, more contemplative and just a little depressing of the kind that can be used to add some colour to a dip. Take the piece "You, Me and the End of Everything," which can be found on YouTube. Compared to the score of The Murder of Halit Yozgat,...
ILFU welcomes award-winning author Jennifer Egan and Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart to Utrecht on 20 May 2020 for a unique double Book Talk. Both authors published new novels in early April, each commenting on (Western) society in its own way. In doing so, the novels align with the mission of the online platform for stories that ILFU also launched in early April,...
cut-ups & fuck-ups, Berio & Burroughs Saturday 3 September With Words & Music, Asko|Schönberg serves you an afternoon and evening full of cut-ups & fuck-ups. A rush of sensations; fantastic, grim, absurd, disruptive and with humour. A festival full of cut-up, cut-up and brand-new performances, installations, film and more, inspired by the cut-up techniques of composer Berio and writer Burroughs. After the...
It attracted widespread media attention in late 2020. Putin opponent Alexei Navalny survived an assassination attempt with nerve poison, revealed the suspected perpetrators and ventured back to Moscow despite everything. In this documentary, we witness it up close.
Ok. One time I will say it. That Yara Piekema is the daughter of Harry Piekema. You know: that man who single-handedly gave that Zaanse Grootgrutter a human face. Harry was already a big one in Utrecht, and now it turns out he secretly, years ago, gave birth to an even bigger one: Yara Piekema, no longer the daughter of,...
In the week that already began dramatically with the deaths of Jan Rot and Arno Hintjens, Henny Vrienten has now joined musician heaven. Far too young at 73, but still 41 years older than he was in one of his most famous songs. A bit weird, but mostly very sad. One of the most sympathetic musicians...
The Silence of Tired Tongues, curated by Raphael Fonseca, features the work of 13 emerging artists born in Brazil. The artworks in this group exhibition convey a sense of 'saudade', which can be translated as a mixture of melancholy and longing. The title of the exhibition is taken from a popular 1972 song by the...
In the best-read newsletter of cultural Netherlands (on average 60 per cent open and 12 per cent click links, where the national average for peers is 30 and 2 per cent respectively), I wrote recently that the news, that visits to theatres and museums have not yet returned to precorona levels, seemed to come as a surprise to some. I mentioned...
The Netherlands got to know French-Senegalese author David Diop a few years ago with his novel More than a Brother, an impressive tale of a piece of French-colonial history, which was awarded the European Literature Prize and the International Booker Prize, among others. His well-received new novel, Journey Without Return, or the Hidden Cahiers of Michel Adanson is another important book....
On Good Friday, I, working for the Immigration and Naturalisation Service IND, attended the 100th performance of Solomon's Judgement at the Lourdes Church in Scheveningen. Wijbrand Schaap visited the confrontational theatre production in July 2021 and wrote back then about the perils of an asylum procedure at the IND. Where does the performance stand now? Just in a nutshell: in Salomon's Judgement, three actors do...
How beautiful art for children can be when a real artist is involved. When themes like death, falling in love, loneliness and exclusion are made palpable in such a beautiful way that you step outside with a deeper feeling about life? With theatre-maker Moniek Merkx, you can. A year ago, she stepped down as artistic director of...
That you are suddenly back in 1996 at Black Snow, the television series in which actress Tamar van den Dop managed to hook an entire generation of viewers at the time. Since then, her raven-black curls have turned into a dazzling cloud of silver, but those who go to the National Theatre's Distress trilogy suddenly see that young Tamar again. A miracle of talent in...
Babeth Fonchi Fothchind. Remember that name, because she's going to be big, if she wasn't already, but out of my sight. Can happen, with all the bubbles and tick marks we make our way through life. Her debut collection will be released in June 2022, and then you can read it for yourself. I saw her on a Tuesday night during...
So that we never forget that the Netherlands also needed help to become free. Ksenia tours the Netherlands with her theatre show 'They Saw War' and plays on liberation commemorations. Or on days when a town, village or hamlet was liberated in 1945. She follows the trail of the liberators. In 75 minutes, Ksenia takes the audience into the lives of...
ILFU is launching 12 April an online platform for fiction that responds to current events. According to the initiators, fiction is at least as important for understanding the world as the facts we hear in the news. With contributions from writers, thinkers and poets, the platform aims to counterbalance the BNs, influencers and opinion makers that dominate the media. Writers like...
Now that the cultural sector can slowly but surely put the corona crisis and lockdowns behind it, it is time to look back. How have they done, the theatres, the clubs? Earlier, this site discussed the book TivoliVredenburg wrote about its first year (Off/On). Now it's time to look at how a theatre in 'the region' managed the...
Utrecht - Utrecht dance company De Dansers received the first Harm Lambers Building Stone for Special Art in Utrecht on 10 April. During a festive evening in Theater Kikker, one of the initiators, Paul Feld, presented this challenge trophy to De Dansers. Jury report De Dansers, led by choreographer Josephine van Rheenen and composer Guy Corneille is...
Saturday 23 April, 2.15pm and 4pm: Stairway to Music by Asko|Schönberg and the Muziekgebouw is an intimate 40-minute listening experience on the steps of Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. Stairway to Music is inspired by a story told at the farewell gathering of conductor/pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, who died in 2020. When Reinbert played the piano in his flat, people would take...
The programming for next season is largely known and ticket sales have started. Below is the overview of the programmes from September to December 2022. Asko|Schönberg opens season 2022/2023 on Saturday 3 September with festival Words & Music, a day full of cut-ups and fuck-ups inspired by Berio and Burroughs. Also many new works by Richard Ayres, Jan van de Putte, Arnold...
A super big park in the middle of the city. Festival Circolo will move to Tilburg's Spoorpark in October 2022. With the festival heart in the Spoorpark and various satellite locations in the city centre, it will be one big circus party in Tilburg for ten days. With this move, Festival Circolo opts for a location in the middle of the city. The Spoorpark is the largest civic initiative in...
'For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to play all the notes written by Chekhov. It was an intellectual and artistic challenge to really work with Chekhov. I could really let Chekhov be one of the authors of the play, which is very unusual for me. After all, I'm used to writing plays to...
What magnificent beauty of Dutch language from Tom Lanoye! What greatness of stage by Theu Boermans! What great acting by Romana Vrede, Mark Rietman and Myrthe Huber! Three hours of enjoyment at the very highest level that culture has to offer. And then the Koninklijke Schouwburg in The Hague is not even sold out on a Saturday night. Did the big...
Ari Folman's (Walz With Bashir) new animated film Where is Anne Frank is the opening film of the Kaboom animation festival. Folman explains how it definitely had to be a film for young audiences, why it features an escaped girl from Africa, and why the concentration camp resembles the underworld from Greek mythology.
The Culture Council believes that there is now a unique opportunity to make the cultural and creative sector more agile and resilient, while at the same time creating space for the sector's recovery after corona. However, this requires a broad view of the cultural system as a whole and sufficient time to discuss this. The usual four-yearly...
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