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Meg Stuart throws very ordinary bodies into the fray

Meg Stuart's two-hour heroic epic Until Our Hearts Stop, showing at the Rotterdam Schouwburg this week, does not engage in dramatic construction according to the rules of Aristotle's Poetics. We don't know who those people are there on stage. Nor do they seem to have been given any special assignment, although they are clearly being... 

Jan Terlouw: 'We are digging holes on Mars. And clean energy can't?'

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... 

Theologian wants more constructive swearing

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... 

Stefan Hertmans: 'I raised this convert from the dead'

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.... 

napk petition

Petition! NAPK wants to go to the barricades for the performing arts

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... 

Herta Müller: 'I like small things'

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... 

Art world says thanks for bike bell, but now wants pedal back too

That 10 million is officially in. The art world is doing its best to sound grateful. The employers in the performing arts, gathered in the NAPK, have sent Bussemaker a thank you. Because she is not cutting 300 million from culture, but only 290 million. The extra money raked together last year by various lobbyists and parties is now anchored in the... 

Festival Musica Sacra offers little and big treasures

Festival Musica Sacra concluded on Sunday 18 September with a riveting performance of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's Brockes-Passion. Conductor Peter van Heyghen led the Flemish ensemble Il Gardellino through the colourful work of this relatively unknown contemporary of Bach with great dedication and precision. With his lively rhythms, glowing arias and wonderfully beautiful chorales, Stölzel thrusts his contemporary into the... 

Programmer to talk: Astrid in 't Veld's dream season

When you go to a concert, you think about the music, the ensemble, the soloist and/or the conductor. Maybe you look up something about the composer but you never think about the programmer who made the concert possible. Astrid in 't Veld is someone who thinks about the range of concerts on offer years in advance in order to help you with... 

Vvd's Jeroen Hatenboer during paradise debate

VVD leader says sorry to art world during #paradise debate

'At the time, under the influence of the populists, we perhaps went too far in our attack on art subsidies.' So declared Jeroen Hatenboer, VVD member and culture alderman of the municipality of Enschede, during the annual Paradiso debate at the end of the Uitmarkt 2016. In the context of the current cabinet's sorry campaign, quite an interesting footnote, and entirely appropriate in the upcoming... 

Dance house Amsterdam

Amsterdam wants to, does not want a Dance House. Rotterdam makes a Dance House

The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts would love a central 'vibrant dance venue' in Amsterdam. But surely such a Dance House has just been torpedoed? It was striking: in the Introduction to Dance to the grants awarded by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) for the 2017-2020 grant awards, they note an "ardent need" for a "dance house": a central place for development, production and the... 

Tent Theatre in Den Bosch: The Turret of Order of the Day

Tent Theatre in Den Bosch: high quality, shame about the sound #tfboulevard

Sometimes, people are so angry politically that they furiously turn down the chance to become the country's boss themselves upon hearing the word 'prime minister'. Oscar Kocken, the cheerful host and creator, together with Daan Windhorst, of 'Het Torentje' noticed this last Friday. He was trying to warm up a passer-by to his performance, in a tent on the... 

Performing arts employers (NAPK) angry: subsidy system must change

They totally agree with us, the employers in the performing arts sector. These company and theatre directors and other managers of dwindling coffers, gathered in the Dutch Association of Performing Arts (NAPK), are circulating a letter today, calling on the Lower House to review the system of subsidies. After all, now the middle class is falling between the cracks. Has happened before, and... 

Poubelle, fragment of cover

Poubelle by Pieter Waterdrinker: MH17 and the stench of Europe

The Netherlands is commemorating the MH17 disaster this month. Two years on, the question of guilt is still not unequivocally answered. The protagonist of Pieter Waterdrinker's novel Poubelle has less trouble with that: who holds himself mostly responsible. A conversation with correspondent novelist Waterdrinker: on modern European history, the Russian mentality, Great Literature and the shit of contemporary Europe.

Theatre festival Boulevard

Theatre festival Boulevard: Not the Avignon, but the Berlin of the Netherlands?

There are many reasons not to go on holiday. It costs money, you come back more stressed than you went, the food is no good, it costs tons of CO2 and it doesn't increase mutual understanding between countries either. Reason enough, then, to just stay here and enjoy the free time given to you by the boss, or by yourself if you are self-employed. Without being barked at by airport staff.

'The European is an orphan' - Milo Rau on The Dark Ages #HF16

Swiss playwright Milo Rau created a theatrical trilogy about the demise of the European ideal. The second part The Dark Ages is now at the Holland Festival. Rau combined his actors' painful, personal life stories with themes from the works of Chekhov, Shakespeare and the Greek tragedies. With a Freudian sauce: 'Countless people who are The Dark Ages have seen ask me: 'Milo, is something wrong with your father?'

Ça Ira: political theatre with the allure of House of Cards #HF16

Over four hours long Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis, a performance by French director Joël Pommerat, to be seen this weekend at the Holland Festival. He reconstructed events in France between 1789 and 1794, better known as The French Revolution. What begins as a sometimes hard-to-follow, animated history lesson culminates in an impressive 'whodunnit', balancing between re-enactment and live television.

Education, education, education. But with an ideological basis.

No, the culture debate on 8 June in the province of Overijssel was not uplifting. The Cultuurnota 2017-2020 was adopted unanimously, except for two votes from the SGP. No fireworks about, for instance, the forced cooperation between the Orkest van het Oosten and Het Gelders Orkest. No hefty investments to fix national and provincial cuts. All spokespersons came up with predictable monologues, comparisons were made with other regions and, above all, they looked enviously at the Randstad, but there was no debate. The Christian parties are worried about empty churches, and the PVV, which is of course actually against subsidies, made some obligatory remarks about safeguarding the Overijsselian identity.

Which identity?

The Walking Forest is performance you definitely want to watch twice (HF16)

De Braziliaanse Christiane Jatahy was vorig jaar al met het stuk What If they went to Moscow op het Holland Festival. Ze kwam, zag en overwon. Dit jaar komt ze met het laatste deel uit de trilogie van toneeladaptaties, The Walking Forest. De titel verwijst naar de drie heksen in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, die zijn opkomst en ondergang voorspellen. Het stuk vormde het uitgangspunt voor een performance met vier videoschermen, een bar, een actrice, een dode vis en, o ja, publiek.

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