The cost of crisis Small heroes is the title of the new novel by Almudena Grandes, one of Spain's greatest writers. And little heroes it is all about: the novel is actually a collection of interrelated stories about people like all of us, only these people all live in Madrid. Rich and poor, young...
Yesterday, the chamber made €10 million available for the arts. This brings the tally of government cuts to at least €190,000,000 still. This hard-won extra is the last thing that could be asked for. Everyone agrees, the new system has been definitively embraced. The protest has made itself redundant now that the compromise has been made. And what have we got...
This month, early music pioneer Marijke Ferguson turned 89. She led the adventurous ensemble Studio Laren for 30 years and has been making radio for over 50 years, the last 23 for the Concertzender. Time and again, she manages to intertwine old and new music with pop and world music in an appealing way. On Sunday 11 December, the Concertzender puts her centre stage during...
Sea monsters, devouring whirlpools and seductive sirens - the primal power of the sea has been a source of awe, fear, fascination and myth for humans for centuries. In millions of years, the tide will no longer exist, but until then, we still have plenty to do with its beauty and dangers. In The Tide, published last month, the British ...
Each month, in the (Un)heard series, I present extraordinary sound that does not go unnoticed and unsung. In this November edition: Jacob Kirkegaard, Oren Ambarchi, Glice and N.M.O. Jacob Kirkegaard - Munk (Cassette, Phinery Tapes) Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard investigates the impact of sound resonance on our ears as well as the rest of the body. In Kirkegaard's work, direct, intimate contact via...
'I have a hundred wishes, and if I think carefully maybe a thousand,' writes Toon Tellegen in Het grote taartenboek, published to mark his seventy-fifth birthday today. 'But one wish is my dearest wish, and that is to sit among the animals on the riverbank one afternoon in early summer....
He wrote more than twenty-five books, half of them for young people, but actually Jan Terlouw did not want to write at all. He was a mathematician and physicist, did nuclear fusion research and later became a politician - that was more than enough. Besides, writing right-handed (as it was taught in school) was torture for someone who is left-handed. It had then...
The show Holy F opens with an audition. Two young women present themselves to a director - a man. They pronounce their phrases impeccably simultaneous, with the sweet tone men like to hear. Their confusion grows. Do they really understand what the director wants from them? Can they handle the role they aspire to? Playing a strong woman: is...
Isn't there enough anger and aggression in our world yet? You would think so, yet Rikko Voorberg (36)[hints]Theologian Rikko Voorberg (1980) is founder of the PopUpKerk, organises art installations and is a publicist; he is a guest correspondent on Anger at De Correspondent and has a regular column in the Nederlands Dagblad. He started the PopUpKerk at the invitation of the...
'He likes a joke,' says Fedor Teunisse of Slagwerk Den Haag, calling composer Brendan Faegre (1985) onto the Bimhuis stage. The young composer explains how the percussionists and the Biennale Cello Band should perform his Magical Quest for the Enchanted Armor. 'It's a game piece,' he says enthusiastically. 'The four percussionists and four cellists...
The last lavender fields have been harvested, and Haute-Provence is preparing for autumn. The white mists come earlier and start to rise later. As the village of Monieux basks in the sun, which still shines warm and bright, the tree-lined river Nesque meanders through the valley stretching out at our feet. Healing silence....
The NAPK (Dutch Association for the Performing Arts) is sounding the alarm bell for the performing arts. The association of employers in the performing arts is launching a petition today and submitting a second fire letter to the Lower House on 1 November. Earlier this year, NAPK already sent a letter to the Lower House. And that was then written about here. Now, in preparation for the Lower House debate on the culture budget, a second...
This week saw the publication of Nobel laureate Herta Müller's autobiography, My homeland, an apple stone. A few years ago, A Quattro Mani had an exclusive interview with the Romanian writer, when her first collection of poetry collages was published, The Skirt-chaser and its sly aunt. We spoke to her at her home in Berlin, she revealed how her poetry collages are created, and the making...
Back to the 11th century His previous novel Oorlog en terpentijn (War and turpentine) brought Belgian writer Stefan Hertmans world success. The book became a bestseller and was showered with praise and awards. It gave Hertmans a whole new readership. His new novel De bekeerlinge was therefore eagerly awaited. Hertmans came up with the subject for his new novel...
A year ago, Belgian writer Kristien Hemmerechts was diagnosed with breast cancer. While embarking on a course of surgery, radiotherapy and hormone therapy, she contained the chaos in words. Her new book Er gebeurde dit, er gebeurde dat is the beautiful result of that. A vivid account of the confusion, emotions and thoughts during those first few months, framed by older...
In 2013, production group Diamantfabriek and ensemble Nieuw Amsterdams Peil presented the full-length performance Conversations with my Mother. Director Matthias Mooij (1976-2014) and composer Benedict Weisser (1967) asked seven male authors to write a fictional telephone conversation with their mother. At the heart of the piece is the fundamental inequality of communication between mother and son. 'I advise all mothers and...
It is a breath of fresh air that German director David Bösch has not given the libretto of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro a postmodern twist, if necessary to showcase his own genius. No addicts, men in battle gear or cars tearing onto the stage at breakneck speed this time, just a straightforwardly told story. The plot of Lorenzo da...
With an average of two novels a year, the Flemish writer has built up a huge and unique body of work in over thirty-five years - he turns 63 this week, but the number of books he has written far exceeds that number. Interview with the man who writes faster than his shadow, in ten quiz questions. 'Well, I don't appear to be a connoisseur of my own work, do I?'
Her book The Sexual Life of Catherine M. took the world by surprise and made her world-famous overnight. Since then, Catherine Millet has been one of France's most widely read writers. In her most recent novel A Dream Life, she returns to her childhood in Bois-Colombes. A Quattro Mani went with her to the seeds of her authorship. Back to...
The summer period is a fine time for catch-up reading - books from recent times that you still wanted to read but didn't get around to before - but we also got a glimpse of a few upcoming titles. That made for a fine, varied crop this month. Eifel adventures Since The Detour, there hasn't been a new novel...
Brexit has given an extra charge to many programmes at the Fringe. But what is British anyway, and where do you belong?
First there was Arthur Schnitzler's book. Then Stanley Kubrick's film. And now the play. From 27 August, Toneelgroep Maastricht plays Eyes wide shut. After his wife confesses her sexual fantasies, a man searches feverishly for his own deepest hidden desires against the backdrop of carnival celebrations. "I always wanted to make psychologised drama once," says Servé Hermans, artistic director of...
It has been eagerly awaited for weeks: the Night of Poetry. For the thirty-fourth time next month, poets and audience gather around the stage for a night of verses and music. Regular presenter Piet Piryns, now fused with the event, looks back and ahead. He remembers it well, his first...
No, these sentences are not in Griet Op de Beeck's theatre monologue Mona, but nicely sum up the bestseller Come Here That I Kiss You (28 printings in just under two years). Op de Beeck adapted the first part into one of Festival Boulevard's most impressive performances. We do see nine-year-old Mona's sentence as a backdrop, complete...
I experienced by far one of the most impressive theatre experiences of my life on Friday 5 August 2016. I was a guest at 'Zvizdal - Chernobyl so far, so close' by the Flemish company Berlin, in co-production with Het Zuidelijk Toneel. I saw this 'documentary installation' in an empty factory hall in Den Bosch, where the work is a beautiful resting point in...
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