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Maarten Baanders watched 'Nachthexen 1: Jeanne'. 'The music works its way right through you. At first, this gives me an uneasy feeling. But gradually it pulls me along.'

Is she on a podium of honour or a scaffold? Joan of Arc holds a monologue. She shouts out her words. The beat of the music propels an ominous atmosphere into the room. On the floor, five dancers make resolute movements. In a long series of statements and confessions, Jeanne speaks out what moved her to seek the battlefield. And. 

Read More "Maarten Baanders watched 'Nachthexen 1: Jeanne'. 'The music works its way right through you. At first, this gives me an uneasy feeling. But gradually it pulls me along.'

Marieke Nijkamp wrote an American bestseller, and her next book is also going like a rocket: 'Young people shy away from not much'

This young writer from Hengelo - she turns 32 in January - sold over a quarter of a million copies of her debut novel This Is Where It Ends in the United States. It spent 64 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. So Hengelo-based Young Adult writer Marieke Nijkamp did feel slight pressure while writing her second book, Before I... 

Read More "Marieke Nijkamp wrote an American bestseller, and her next book is also going like a rocket: 'Young people shy away from not much'

A museum with impact. How museums can raise historical awareness and offer people comfort, perspective and connection

More than a million Dutch people feel very lonely, according to the Health Monitor 2012. Among them are an increasing number of young people - all social media notwithstanding. Perhaps we could stop this 'loneliness epidemic' if we realised that none of us is really alone. What we so often forget is that we are directly connected to thousands of others: the people... 

Read More "A museum with impact. How museums can raise historical awareness and offer people comfort, perspective and connection

Brian Elstak wrote Tori. Finally a book for all children? Afke Bohle asked hers. The answer is surprising.

A Quattro Mani's pop-uprecent Afke Bohle takes up the challenge of reading a book with her sons. After good experiences with Suzie Ruzie and Susan van 't Hullenaar's The Green Hand series, she is now venturing into Tori, the recent children's book by Brian Elstak in collaboration with author Karin Amatmoekrim, touted as: 'finally a book for all children'.... 

Read More "Brian Elstak wrote Tori. Finally a book for all children? Afke Bohle asked hers. The answer is surprising.
Publicity image BOG. for KID.

'BOG.' plays 'KID.': how a simple question to the audience can lead to exciting theatre.

A collection of makers they are. A collection, but not a collective. What an 'f' can't already make up. So language is quite a thing. And crowdsourcing is quite a thing. These makers collect words from their audience, and give them back in a performance. That's 'BOG.', a still fairly young group trying to use language to make theatre to get us to... 

Read More "'BOG.' plays 'KID.': how a simple question to the audience can lead to exciting theatre.

The only one - review in letter form (Why Peter Perrett is a true survivor)

Hey H., Tonight I went with J.P. to see Peter Perrett & Band at Paradiso, Small Hall. Sold out! I've told you about J. before, he was the deejay who gave me a 'crash course' in sincere music at the Eindhoven Bakery when I was 15 (1988). Before I tell you about Peter Perrett and why his music is worth... 

Read More "The only one - review in letter form (Why Peter Perrett is a true survivor)

Suddenly feeling the urgency at Dancing on the Edge

As soon as I, as an art consumer, begin to suspect arbitrariness in the artist or his creative process, I drop out. Incidentally, this observation now surprises me. After all, I am no fetishist of form, nor am I a canon junkie, and I am not qualified in any of the standard artistic disciplines. Not a composer, not a performing musician and not an actor. Neither filmmaker nor director, nor a lyricist graduate.... 

Read More "Suddenly feeling the urgency at Dancing on the Edge

Still thinking about tougher sentencing, thanks to 'Prison Monologues'

Utrecht's Wolvenplein prison is sort of empty. Anyone who doesn't happen to have a conviction behind them themselves should go there for fun. I did so myself two years ago on an art project about the surveillance society. When I returned on Tuesday, 17 October 2017, for The Prison Monologues, the impression was still there. The... 

Read More "Still thinking about tougher sentencing, thanks to 'Prison Monologues'

Lavalu's nocturnal movement

High up in a posh flat, Lavalu (stage name of Marielle Woltring, Cleveland, Ohio, 1979) recently gave a try-out of her new programme at Eindhoven's FlatFest festival. For the first time now, she will tour without a band, solo with piano, in small venues where there is a good grand piano. On that Sunday afternoon in Brabant, it soon became clear that somewhere, something was... 

Read More "Lavalu's nocturnal movement

Kassys plays the blues (About hopeless depression and a real-life pizza courier)

Dat je een schoen aan kunt trekken. Maar ook niet. Dat het eigenlijk niet zoveel zin heeft om een schoen aan te trekken, als je hem later op de dag toch ook weer uit zult doen. Why bother? Waarom leven? Herkenbaar? Voor wie ooit in een dip zat wel. Theatergroep Kassys, onlangs nog wereldwijd een hit met ‘Total Eclipse of… 

Read More "Kassys plays the blues (About hopeless depression and a real-life pizza courier)

'Crusade' by Artemis is top theatre that will make any layman a fan.

Jetse Batelaan has spent pretty much this entire century making the most extraordinary theatre in the world. At least, of my world. Often with very few words, always with a great sense of bare aesthetics and usually sympathetic with a weird twist halfway through. His latest masterpiece is an adaptation of Thea Beckman's Crusade in Jeans. Though we need at least three quarters of... 

Read More "'Crusade' by Artemis is top theatre that will make any layman a fan.

Amsterdam Sinfonietta shines in shadow play with Kurtág and baroque

The Great Hall of the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ is pitch dark. Then a spotlight flashes on the first side balcony on the right. There, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Maria Milstein, Rosanne Philippens and Jacobien Rozemond play three movements from Telemann's Concert for four violins. They end in a freeze, after which the whisper-soft, fragile tones sound from Treasures by György Kurtág. We only see... 

Read More "Amsterdam Sinfonietta shines in shadow play with Kurtág and baroque
Side B: Adrift THE HIDDEN FLOOR © Rahi Rezvani

In Side B: Adrift, The Hidden Floor completes the madness

NDT 1 concludes its triptych Side B: Adrift with Franck Chartier's new The Hidden Floor. After the performance, I literally lose my way. Different worlds "Franck?", I call out. In the rain, an unremarkable man approaches me. Yes, reads the reply from under a cap. It's Franck Chartier, on his way to the studio in... 

Read More "In Side B: Adrift, The Hidden Floor completes the madness

Per-Sonat sings songs from Luther's time: surprisingly fresh and current

Bis an der Welt ihr Ende is the poetic title of a CD by Per-Sonat featuring German songs from the time of the Reformation. This ensemble of mezzo-soprano Sabine Lutzenberger focuses on music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This CD follows the development of German song from church reformer Martin Luther to the composer Johann Hermann Schein.... 

Read More "Per-Sonat sings songs from Luther's time: surprisingly fresh and current

Explosive emotions, deep waters and a refreshing spark in Dance Room 5

A field littered with landmines. This is what life feels like sometimes. In waiting rooms, for example. Uncomfortable situations. What should you say to each other? Timorous glances shoot past each other. Hidden tension pounds against your muscles. Everyone is afraid of everyone else. And of themselves. Fobia by Davide Bellotta is one of three works with which young choreographers present themselves in the programme 

Read More "Explosive emotions, deep waters and a refreshing spark in Dance Room 5
Beatles tour bus (replica) Photo: Chris Samson CC.BY 2.0

You had one chance to sustainably improve arts subsidies

The decision will be official in mid-September, but behind the scenes it has already been made. The Netherlands will have a very small basic cultural infrastructure for the performing arts, and a very large fund that anyone who wants to make theatre, dance, mime or music must apply to. I asked around a bit recently, and so that's what it's going to be. That way, politicians can't... 

Read More "You had one chance to sustainably improve arts subsidies

Chablis, riesling, bardolino and five indies: Boulevard succeeded

Wine tasting and listening to medieval music are usually things people only do with very serious faces. So it took five glasses, three drunken singers and a good hour before the mob in the sober Heilig Hart church in Den Bosch loosened up a bit. With a Frontignan to boot. You do start fantasising about the great dinner you had at... 

Read More "Chablis, riesling, bardolino and five indies: Boulevard succeeded

8 phenomena together on stage do not make phenomenal theatre at Theatre Festival Boulevard

Claron McFadden is a phenomenon. Josse de Pauw is a phenomenon. Arnon Grunberg is a phenomenon. LOD is a phenomenon. KVS is a phenomenon. Theatre Festival Boulevard is a phenomenon. I did not yet know pianist Kris Defoort, but he is also a phenomenon. As is Henry Purcell, but we've known that for a couple of centuries: also a phenomenon. After such an opening paragraph... 

Read More "8 phenomena together on stage do not make phenomenal theatre at Theatre Festival Boulevard

Wunderbaum provokes revulsion with sacred performance about North Sea cruise at Theatre Festival Boulevard

Anyone who is young, a little nicely educated and otherwise generally of good character does not go on a North Sea cruise. A cruise on the North Sea, that's what you do if you have no imagination, have bad legs or are too sick for anything else. Believes Wunderbaum. The theatre collective that likes to take care of the vulnerable of this planet is... 

Read More "Wunderbaum provokes revulsion with sacred performance about North Sea cruise at Theatre Festival Boulevard

The Apocalypse is something to look forward to at Theatre Festival Boulevard

The most beautiful end of the world is in Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Floating poplars, a woolly planet eating us in a wave of atmospheric mist. I'd sign up for it. Anything better than the sloshing slabs of earth full of screaming puppets in the failed 2012 disaster movie. Then again, not as much fun as the end of times in The Hitchhikers Guide.... 

Read More "The Apocalypse is something to look forward to at Theatre Festival Boulevard

Boukje Schweigman makes you feel how weird time is at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

Industrial estates are weird. They lie souring on the outskirts of one city, only to seamlessly morph into the same site on the outskirts of another. Once they were A-locations, places of visibility and the incarnate dream of reconstruction. Now they are low-grade structures, halls with a front door, a visible office for the Dirk and a pathetic... 

Read More "Boukje Schweigman makes you feel how weird time is at Theatre Festival Boulevard.

Thinking won't make you a hero. Artful Flemish musical theatre on Boulevard

Heroes are not always the smartest people. Indeed, most acts that have gone down in history as heroes have been thoughtless actions. That happened to succeed. Pure luck. Against every heroic act, therefore, there is an unknown but not negligible number of senseless deaths of would-be heroes. The main character of the theatre play The Heroes, which I attended in Den Bosch on 4 August,... 

Read More "Thinking won't make you a hero. Artful Flemish musical theatre on Boulevard

Celebrate art in times of gloom. #tfboulevard

Opening speeches. Every festival has one. Or two. You have to go through them. As a guest, but also as a host. Something should be found on it. Of course a point has to be made, a flag raised, a champagne bottle bang introduced. And also the sponsors should be thanked. In these times of a retreating government, there are more of them every year. And. 

Read More "Celebrate art in times of gloom. #tfboulevard

Just a Guest is justified summer hit: listening always makes people interesting

I held my heart. Patrick Nederkoorn and Oscar Kocken had been tempted by television to bring their brilliant gem 'Zomaargasten' over to the living room. NPO3 still. The channel targeting millennials. I had visions of channel managers, dramaturgs, audience specialists and gussied-up boys and girls well over forty that these two little artists would... 

Read More "Just a Guest is justified summer hit: listening always makes people interesting

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