This is a test from Yell

All the things you do to keep control of your life – that is what Miet Warlop’s installation Violent Stomach represents. Can this renowned Flemish theatre maker/performer guard you from the fear that others will take control over you? Step inside the pink cube. Look around and listen. Discover Mother Earth and experience what it means to relinquish control. Feel it in your stomach. Intensely purifying.

The Block Box is open every day between 13h00 and 23h30, you can visit the Block Box for free.

Created with support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

And with the support of the Flemish community and the transition regulations for cultural projects with a supralocal appearance.

Credits
Concept: Miet Warlop, Irene Wool vzw

Iqaluit, the installation presented by theatre company BERLIN in 2005, was a thing of earth-shattering beauty. Thanks to binaural engineering – a technique that allows both ears to hear a different frequency – audiences had an almost 3D-experience of what life in the Northernmost tip of Canada sounds like. At Boulevard’s request, BERLIN, the makers of a much-praised brand of documentary theatre are plotting a new course. Destination? Top secret. But highly advanced engineering ensures you will believe you have been physically transported to the place where the recording was made. Only afterwards will you know if you were right to pack your malaria pills, snowboard or GPS-tracker.

The Block Box is open every day between 13h00 and 23h30, every day between 13h00 and 14h00 you can visit the Block Box for free.
Created with support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Credits
Concept: BERLIN [Bart Baele & Yves Degryse]

It is a true feast for the senses, Het Inkt Atelier in Josephkwartier courtyard. Under the impassioned guidance of cartoonist and graphic artist Judith Rosema, children can free their inner artists in this workshop.

Suitable for all ages. 

Credits
Concept and performance: Judith Rosema

In Broken Glass a kaleidoscopic dance and film installation offers audiences a glimpse into one person’s world, seemingly a social dropout. Its creator is hiphop-choreographer Alida Dors [1977], the artistic director of the Amsterdam-based dance company BackBone. She writes: “Who you are, and which group you belong to, depends not just on who you want to be. People’s lives are impacted by ambition but also subject to coincidence. We are all caught in power relations. But your life is still yours, always.” An installation that deals with the differences between ‘them’ and ‘us’. Are they really that big? BackBone scored a big hit at Boulevard 2018 with their duet Bronstijd.

The Block Box is open every day between 13h00 and 23h30, every day between 13h00 and 14h00 you can visit the Block Box for free.
Created with support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Credits
Concept, director en choreografie: Alida Dors
Dance poule: Donna Chittick, Cheroney Pelupessy, Clearence Koorndijk en Melvin Fraenk

Having done 500 one-on-one concerts inside her revamped Volkswagen-van, singer-songwriter Eva van Pelt is ready to face a bigger audience. In her concert HIER she dares you to be vulnerable and make contact. It’s up to you if you reciprocate. No obligation. No judgement. Eva sings in Dutch about loneliness, connecting, and the urge to really know the other person. She might just be singing it just for you.

Credits
Vocals and guitar: Eva van Pelt
Percussion: Koen Wijnen

Welcome to the private surgery of the Bach Kliniek, where a musician – a violinist, cellist, harpsichordist, pianist, organist or accordionist – performs a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Just for you. Before you go in, you decide what you want to take away from this personal concert: to be comforted, encouraged, or experience joy. Bach Kliniek is an initiative of Sounding Bodies, which was founded by cellist Jacqueline Hamelink [1969]. 

Credits
Concept, director en performance: Jacqueline Hamelink
Music: Diederik van Wassenaer, Eilidh Martin, Goska Isphording, Jacqueline Hamelink, Laurens de Man,Maximiliano Cia, Vincent van Amsterdam

A writer deals with a rare condition that causes his hearing to deteriorate. How much longer will he be able to hear the musician next to him. The writer is Lucas de Waard [1984], author of novels and musicals. The musician is singer-songwriter Iris Penning [1993]. Stil leven is a musical piece of theatrical storytelling, an autobiography mixed with a contemporary fairy-tale. The happily-ever-after effortlessly outruns any grim morality.

Credits
Text and performance: Lucas de Waard, Iris Penning
Music: Iris Penning

In the World Happiness Report 2019, with survey results from 156 countries, the Netherlands climbed to fifth position. A nuance: 1.1 million Dutch are on antidepressants, and the Netherlands is the world’s number one producer of XTC. Need a fix? No problem, especially if you’re in Brabant. Welcome to Dries Verhoeven’s pharmacy on Burgemeester Loeffplein, which employs a humanoid as a pharmacist’s assistant. It informs you about the medical means to improve your mental state. A final thought as an instruction for use: are our emotions still authentic? After all, at some parties, recreational drugs have become the norm, and the stigma attached to psychoactive drugs is diminishing rapidly. Dries Verhoeven’s Phobiarama was his last disturbing installation to come to Boulevard.

Happiness is an installation that can be visited continuously between 2 p.m. - 10 p.m. Go to Burgemeester Loeffplein and report to the pharmacy. A ticket is not required, admission is free.

Credits
Concept: Dries Verhoeven
Production: Studio Dries Verhoeven
Coproduction: SPRING Festival en Stichting NDSM-werf

Take a seat, at this table here. Three others will join you. Slightly uncomfortable? That’s understandable, it’s not every day you get to form a theatre company with three strangers. But everything will be alright, we think. Just surrender to the script. Een script voor vier personen is a DIY-show for four spectators, a text, a turntable and a lightbulb. It was created by Rob Smorenberg [1993] who was a performer with De Warme Winkel, Davy Pieters and others.

This performance is suitable for anyone over 8 years old. 

Credits
Concept en performance: Rob Smorenberg
Advice: Alexandra Broeder, Maurice Bogaer

Pandas and bamboo - it’s a match. Josef Stiller and bamboo: same. The German juggler manipulates both sticks and audiences. The ultimate stick? Eight metres long. And you can be sure it falls in your direction.

For six years, Ilona and Frans have been first-aiders at festivals, sporting events and fairs. They work side by side, chatting and dreaming away the time. But they want more: they covet each other. To fulfil their desire they must take risks. But they are deeply afraid to destroy what they have. And so they live on false hope – true or false, it springs eternal. A first-aid romance about deep desires, lust, life, and fish burgers. M’n Lust en m’n Leven was made in 2016 collaboration with De Veenfabriek. Especially for Boulevard, De Vlieg is creating a new version. 

Credits
Text en director: Teun Smits
Actors: Jacobien Elffers & Laurens van Lottum

Ox tongue, kippers and chicken curry are Antwerp’s signature dishes. But none of them are as rich as the stories told by Geert Hautekiet [1968]. He is a master wordsmith: in a meaty Antwerp dialect that will make even vegans’ mouths water. In 2018 he spoonfed his audience his narration PALM!. Now he is dishing up SH!T, the highly improbable yet true story of a globetrotter. Geert found the handwritten diary of this adventurer at a jumble sale. Hautekiet has been a Boulevard stalwart for 15 years, both solo and with Compagnie KAiET! He made his name with musical extravaganzas such as Gotf!, Tour de Force and De Vieze Veroltjes.

Credits
Text and performance: Geert Hautekiet

Paragraph 1 of the Dutch Arms Act states it is illegal to carry a weapon in public roads or in any place that is open to the public. Which poses a problem for Nick Livramento Silva, Joey Schrauwen and the four other performers. Because the power of their words equals the sure fire of a riot gun. And to make matters worse they are also carrying toy guns so they can decide their improvised rhyming contest in their own favour. They are fast, unpredictable and firmly rooted in the here and now. And they know how to find the words that hit home hardest to capture it. A theatrical trap? It is, and they set it for themselves. They walked into it with eyes wide open in 2017. 

Credits
Performance: Said El Abboudi, Ioana Tudor, Lucien Rentmeester, Jurrien van Rheenen, Nick Livramento Silva, Joey Schrauwen

From the day he was born in 1989 Redouan Ait Chitt was 6-0 behind. His opponent: the future. His body features unique abnormalities, a file full of them. But Redouan doesn’t believe in boundaries. Today he is an internationally renowned breakdancer and in-demand [TEDx] speaker. In his baffling solo Redo – choreographed by Shailesh Bahoran – he rewrites the definition of willpower.

In Heritage Shailesh Bahoran [1983] studies his Hindustan roots. His solo is an impressive intertwining of classic Indian dance, breakdance and popping. Shailesh excelled at an earlier edition of Boulevard with Ignite, which was nominated for De Zwaan 2017 [most impressive dance production].

Anyone who sees Quintessence from dancer / choreographer Herrie the Robot probably thinks' I know that! He is indeed no stranger. You see him in battles, on television and in the theater (Battle on the Dancefloor and Time to Dance) Nothing seems to stop the robot. But who is the man behind the metal?

These performances are suitable for visitors from 12 years.

1- 3 Aug REDO & Heritage
4 - 6 Aug Heritage & Quintessence

This performance is suitable for anyone over 12 years old. 

Credits
​REDO: concept, choreografie director: Shailesh Bahoran
Choreografie en dance  Redouan Ait Chitt

Heritage: concept, director, choreografie and dance: Shailesh Bahoran

Quintessence: concept, director, choreografie and dance: Herrie the Robot

In spring 2019 the Turkish/Dutch dancer and choreographer Rutkay Özpinar [1991] conducted a unique research into Turkish folk dances. He studied Oriental [belly dance], Halay [highly grounded, repetitive dance] and Zeybek, a slow dance from the Aegean area. Rutkay then opened up his own movement language to absorb these styles. With belly dancer Adrijana he presents the results of his expedition in Gönülden gelen, Turkish for ‘what springs from the soul’. Rutkay Özpinar masters the rare art of blending modern dance, neoclassical ballet and urban dance. Since 2014 he has been working with dance production house Korzo in The Hague.

Credits
Choreography and dance: Rutkay Özpinar, Adrijana

Fools rush in: true selflove in a society that runs on purposeful mindsets and precious little physical awareness. Thankfully, Amsterdam-based journalist and theatre maker Gian van Grunsven [1985], helps. In her staged lecture Over komen she highlights our first sexual relationship: the one with ourselves. Gian plunges straight in: its history and anatomy, under the blankets with masturbation gurus and her own body.

Credits
​Research, text en performance: Gian van Grunsven

Where to begin... The dilemmas involved in taking a first step – actor and singer Hanneke Last [1984] knows all about them. And yet, she finds a way to begin. BEGIN is all about starting, setting off, opening moves. Because there’s great energy in starting. Because it’s so scary. Because everybody always begins – and begins again. An ode to origins, including spoken word, her hit song Nee, beats and philosophy. Does beginning again count as a repeat or not?

Credits
Text, concept en performance: Hanneke Last
Music: Leon Klaasse, Joel Groenewold, Roel Goedhart, Hanneke Last

They are called Mensen Zeggen Dingen, a name that is testimony to their powers of observation [People Talk]. And they themselves talk a lot too. They call it sproetry: eardrum-caressing texts, featuring booming prose, poetry, comedy, spoken word and other word-shaped forms of expression. Mensen Zeggen Dingen is a troupe of young writers and spoken-word artists who travel around the country, living the writer’s life. 

Credits

Performance: Teddy Tops with 6 performancers

Where is Waldo, a.k.a. Wally? Dutch and Flemish performers Michiel Deprez [1989] and Ruben Mardulier [1993] are offering a sound-based version of the worldwide hunt. In the funny, sentimental and at times terrifying Oord #plein, visitors are given a pair of headphones. These are playing music for a person or element near them. But who, or what? Set off and search. DJ Nikki Nordmann, who selects the music, unerringly anticipates the shifts in the surroundings.

This performance is suitable for anyone over 8 years old. 

Credits
Concept en creation: Michiel Deprez en Ruben Mardulier
Dj: Nikki Nordmann
Coproduction: Flanders State of the Arts, Circuscentrum Vlaanderen

Performance in context of PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant

With the Theater Artemis Pressure Group, children took to the streets to march for world change five times in 2017 and 2018. They marched against death, for instance, near the Orthen cemetery in ’s-Hertogenbosch. The Pressure Group also has a Buildings Division. Not listed, all the more anarchic. At Theaterfestival Boulevard it will establish a temporary operating base. A children’s fortress, recycling old publicity material, forgotten set pieces, stage bricolage and discarded props. Led by a drama teacher and a visual artist the children set to work. Fitting their clubhouse with all mod cons, including a smoking chimney, a drawbridge, sign and house rules. Come build with them! 

Credits
Concept: Liesbet Swings
Led by visual artist Maarten Bel and theater teachers

Three grown-up TV-presenters are fighting for attention in the studio. Each of them wants the only available microphone. Oh no you don’t, let go! All eyes on me! The three are scoring points off each other with trickery and camouflage, and whoever wins one minute may lose the next. Additional charm comes from the ingenious stage set. It proves an excellent place to hide and leads to classic misunderstandings. PAK’M is a physical catch-as-catch-can in the spirit of Tom & Jerry, Laurel & Hardy, Road Runner or Bugs Bunny – but at toddler level. It was made by director René Geerlings and composer Wim Conradi whose earlier collaboration resulted in the stage hit AaiPet. BonteHond, which performed the music theatre show IK at Boulevard 2018, is sure to catch viewers of all ages with PAK’M. Not just three-year olds; anyone who [openly or secretly] loves to play hide and seek. Home free during Boulevard! 

Credits
Director: René Geerlings
Co-creator en soundtrack: Wim Conradi
Performance: Milan Boele van Hensbroek, Dionisio Matias, Linda Zijl

Boulevard 2019’s festive public opening ?on Thursday 1 Aug 4.00 PM! ?The world is chronically unstable. As is Cie Mauvais Coton’s living tumbler. He swerves and swivels, high up in the air. The things he enjoys most: his unsteady life and scaring his audience. 

This performance is suitable for all ages. 

Credits
Coproduction: La Cascade, Les Quinconces, Département de l'Ardeche

Where there's a rise, a fall is sure to follow. Nothing can escape it, not empires, not even love. Thankfully, there's beauty in decay. Leonard Cohen captured it in a single line: "There is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in." The same applies to the grotesque yet loving theatre show Craquelé. In an empty church, a sexton called Tuesday is looking back upon his riddle of a life. Countless villagers come to visit: the gravedigger, the choirmaster, a son, a daughter and other lost souls. Each of them making a bigger sacrifice in life than the empty collection plate would suggest. And yet, the sense of community lingers on, in their fights, their relationships and their celebrations. 

Craquelé is the appearance of tiny fractures and cracks. Not just in paint or glaze. In souls too, as Studio Orka proves. Their Craquelé is a warning: you can never reclaim time unused. So choose, take a leap, and live, as the church legend goes. At Boulevard 2017 these Flemish Theatre makers played the much praised Chasse Patate. 

Credits
Created and performed by: Martine Decroos, Philippe van de Velde, Dominique van Malder, Titus De Voogdt, Janne Desmet, Tania Van der Sanden, Ilse de Koe, Robrecht Vanden Thoren, Peter Monsaert, Lander Scheire, Willem Loobuyck, Maria Dolores Nijns, Staf De Neve, and others
Production: Manchester International Festival and HETPALEIS
Coproduction: Theater Antigone

Predictability is something the Brazilian-Dutch choreographer Guilherme Miotto [1979] hates with a passion. He prized open dance’s vocabulary with work such as Rise Up and .Ball, solos for Menno van Gorp [breakdance world champion] and Nasser El Jackson [groundmoves world champion]. In 2015 he won the André Gingras Award, the prize for choreographers who are unafraid of taking artistic risks. His latest dance solo is another act of defiance, of both dance and gravity. He is creating Pole for Yvonne Smink [1990], the former Dutch pole dancing champion. Her origins lie in indoor climbing. She mixes her technique with Chinese pole and contemporary dance. Pole is honest, high-risk and unconditional without losing any of its fragile command. 

Credits
Choreografie: Guilherme Miotto
Dance: Yvonne Smink

Tinder, Grindr or Parship: in the end, dance is the true guide to finding a lover, as Romeo Romeo Romeo proves. This funky dance show sees the New York-based choreographer Joshua Monten and three friends searching for Juliet.

Credits
​Choreography: Joshua Monten
Dance: Konstantinos Kranidiotis, Joshua Monten, Noa Van Tichel, Jack Wignall
Costumes: Catherine Voeffray

It’s a touching species, mankind. Extending our selfie sticks, we gladly forget how ice ages once laid down the law, dinosaurs croaked, and civilisations crumbled. And we are supposed to be the central figures in all this? A query we are happy to brush aside.One person who embraces it instead, is the Canadian choreographer Mélanie Demers [1974]. Her touching dance show Animal Triste showcases the animal procession we have formed for millions of years. A sad procession, for on a clear day we are aware of our limited shelf-life. In Animal Triste, four dancers show us our counter moves: finding solace in beauty, tinkering with religion, building cities, making spreadsheets, making love, and making babies. This is who we people are: arrogant and weak, genius, irresistible and crude. One of Mélanie Demers’ inspirations was Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind.

Free open studio
During Boulevard, choreographer Mélanie Demers is working on a new creation: Danse Mutante, a transfer choreography. The dancers started with Montréal at Demers, worked in New York with choreographer Ann Liv Young, then flew to Bamako for Kettly Noël. And now Demers continues to work at our festival.
She opens the doors of her temporary studio in the Bank van Leening on 9 August between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. Here she shows and talks about this special project, which will be shown in its entirety at Boulevard during 2020. The next stop after 's-Hertogenbosch is Antwerp; Ann Van den Broek 'mutates' the last episode there.

The free presentation takes place at the Bank van Leening, Schilderstraat 33, 5211 NB 's-Hertogenbosch.
 
Credits
Director and choreographer: Mélanie Demers, with the collaboration of the dancers
On stage during the creation: Marc Boivin, James Gnam, Brianna Lombardo and Riley Sims
Dancers: Marc Boivin, Brianna Lombardo, Riley Sims, Francis Ducharme
Rehearsal Director: Anne-Marie Jourdenais
Dramaturg: Angélique Willkie
Music and Sound Designer: Jacques Poulin-Denis and Antoine Berthiaume
Additional music: Petite fleur de Sidney Bechet
Lighting Designer: Alexandre Pilon-Guay
Technical Director: Mélanie Primeau
Co-production: Festival Danse Canada

The world cried shame about Lolita. From 1956 to 1958 the novel was even banned in France and the US. In his controversial classic, Vladimir Nabokov describes an older man’s obsession with a twelve-year-old girl. But what happens when the narrator’s perspective is turned around? If you see things from the point of view of the child, who is deeply drawn to the adults’ forbidden world? The creators of the appealing, intimate stage solo LO LIE TAA looked to their own childhood for inspiration. Memories of love like a cloud of butterflies, the desperation of keyhole affairs, being imprisoned in children’s costumes. Can adults take an open-minded look at a child’s desire? 

Credits
Director: Marijn Graven
Text: Nunzio Caponio
Performance: Benno Veenstra
Coproduction: Het Zuidelijk Toneel en Festival Cement

Performance in context of PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant

A writer deals with a rare condition that causes his hearing to deteriorate. How much longer will he be able to hear the musician next to him. The writer is Lucas de Waard [1984], author of novels and musicals. The musician is singer-songwriter Iris Penning [1993]. Stil leven is a musical piece of theatrical storytelling, an autobiography mixed with a contemporary fairy-tale. The happily-ever-after effortlessly outruns any grim morality.

Credits
Text and performance: Lucas de Waard, Iris Penning
Music: Iris Penning

De Living begins with a woman coming home to her living room and ends with her killing herself. Or is it the other way around? Can this final hour be told backwards, and bring the woman back to life? Directing De Living is the celebrated, Berlin-based young theatre maker Ersan Mondtag [1987]. His compelling shows feature few words, yet set tongues wagging. On the one hand, De Living owes its much talked-about status to its ingenious concept, grotesque images and flirt with horror. On the other hand, to its probing and current sense of recognition. Mondtag was inspired by the discomfort many of his contemporaries experience from an increasing sense that their lives and society are beyond their control. De Living is performed by twin sisters Doris and Nathalie Bokongo Nkumu [1995] from Brussels. As the dance duo Les Mybalés they are all the rage in Belgium and abroad with their mix of hiphop, house and afro house. 

Credits
Director: Ersan Mondtag, Doris en Nathalie Bokongo Nkumu
Performance: Doris en Nathalie Bokongo Nkumu
Coproduction: Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussel, La Villette Paris, HAU Hebbel am Ufer - Berlin, Theaterfestival Boulevard

September 1629. Prince Frederik Hendrik’s troops have been besieging ’s-Hertogenbosch for four months. Destruction, disease, famine and death are crushing every last bit of hope. Bishop Ophovius is faced with a terrible choice. Should he call upon the citizens to defend the city to the last drop of blood? Or surrender, causing himself, his order and his church to be banished? In the historic Zwanenbroedershuis actor Alexander de Bruijn [1984] shares the captivating tale of the fall of ’s-Hertogenbosch. A new text, bursting with excitement, laughter and drama. This show is the opener for Boulevard’s long-term project ‘Het oog van de stad’. Each festival year, various partners from the city present a project that touches on ‘s-Hertogenbosch’s past, present or future.

Credits
Text and performance: Alexander de Bruijn
Director: Albert van Andel
Made possible by: Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap

Suddenly there are fewer stars in the sky. In groups of four, five they have come down to see Citizen K. It’s quite understandable, because Sadettin Kirmiziyüz [1982] touches the soul and hits a raw nerve. Key question in his solo: how come identity has become something so all-encompassing today? Trying to find the answers, Kirmiziyüz dissects his own identity. Is he a Turk? His last name would suggest it. But what does ‘Kirmiziyüz’ mean for his four-year-old son’s future? And why is the Netherlands falling apart? Going down his 254-point list, Sadettin revisits his life and modern Dutch history in a rollercoaster ride with multi-instrumentalist Kaspar Schellingerhout for company. Sadettin is the creator of the highly praised Somedaymyprincewill.com.

Credits
Concept, text and performance: Sadettin Kırmızıyüz
Music and performance: Kaspar Schellingerhout
Director and text: Casper Vandeputte

Every night at 11.00 PM: a brief starlit concert by the gifted musicians among this year’s Boulevard theatre makers, musicians, technicians and staff.

BLVR&D: a laboratory for heads, hearts and hopes

For ten festival days the upstairs space at Theater aan de Parade is where we pair mental power with muscle power. All kinds of people and organisations get together to tackle big issues. A laboratory where heads, hearts and hopes come together.

BLVR&D has flexible work stations and drawing boards, clotheslines with design sketches, scale models in-the-making. Fingers tapping on keyboards and the smells of printing ink and coffee. The idea behind BLVR&D: living together is increasingly fraught with questions. Boulevard is not afraid of them. On the contrary: BLVR&D is open to questions from the city, professionals in the arts, and the festival itself. The [start of an] answer may well arise in Research & Development.

International guests
All kinds of people have been invited to ponder the BLVR&D questions: artists, visitors, citizens of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, professionals and international guests. The latter category includes participants in CAMP, Danse Mutante, Highlights from the Lowlands and Dance & Dare. The set-up varies: drawing boards, collective work sessions and learning-by-doing. The results of BLVR&D will be shared during the festival through festivalboulevard.nl and social media.

Welcome!
Festival visitors are welcome to enter BLVR&D and view the results of previous sessions. From Friday 2 to Sunday 11 August, BLVR&D is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

We also invite people to sign up - many heads and hearts make light work - and share knowledge and expertise. This is possible for the following work sessions (most of them are in Dutch):

Public space, for everyone?
Theme: Design an inclusive Festivalplein together.
Fri 2 Aug, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Theater of the New Generation
Theme: What is needed to make theater in general and Boulevard in particular interesting for young people. People design a part of the festival program of Boulevard 2020.
Tue 6 Aug, 4.30 pm - 6.30 pm

75 years x 15 August - View of the former Dutch East Indies and Indonesia during Boulevard 2020?
Theme: on the occasion of the 75-year commemoration and celebration of the end of WWII in the former Dutch East Indies, those involved and those interested are designing the pillars of the program on Boulevard 2020.
Sat 10 Aug, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

I see, I see what you do not see
Theme: training in orientation. The distinction between yourself and "the other" and the role that performance visits can play in this
Sun 11 Aug, 1 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.

The Big Butts Consultation
Theme: A smoking policy for Boulevard
Sat 3 Aug, 8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Do you want to be present at one or more sessions? Mail to eline@festivalboulevard.nl and sign up.
Please have a look here for detailed descriptions of the work sessions in Dutch.

Special programme for performing arts professionals: CAMP.
CAMP is a 2-year participatory experiment on coproducing knowledge that questions the sustainability in the development, production and presenting of performing arts. After a successful first and second edition in Montreal and Gothenburg, the founders come together at Festival Boulevard this summer for the third edition of CAMP.

For this edition of CAMP, which focuses specifically on the Dutch performing arts sector and its current questions and challenges, we will work in sessions with artists, presenters, managers, agents, creative producers, and funders in order to speak about the role of the “middle hands“ (managers, producers, agents) in the performing arts sector.

On their third and final day CAMP leads a panel discussion on the sustainability of managers, producers, and agents in the context of a festival. 

Wed 7 Aug, 11.00u - 13.30u

Are you a performing arts professionals? Sign up, contact Line Rousseau at line@apropic.com.
 *Please note this event is specifically geared to performing arts professionals and will be in English

Clouds are always true. They never lie about what they are. They are very clever, too. They never make a sound, but anyone can see them. They change their shape all the time. It makes every cloud completely new.For ten whole days we will be making them in our workshop in the festival square. Big or small? Take your pick. Would you like to join us and show us your clouds? Admission free for anyone aged 2 and up.

Ludo & Arsène are an acrobatic and alarmingly impulsive duo moving across the festival square. On their way to an important assignment, they are hindered everywhere by visitors. What a nuisance!

This performance is suitable for all ages. 

Credits
​Ward Mortier en Thomas Decaesstecker

In BLACKBIRD – REBIRTH, Hendrik Aerts [1976] explores the twilight zone and the afterlife. What to say to those who have passed on? In this interdisciplinary solo for a dancer, Hendrik gives a voice to both the deceased and the person left behind. It’s not just the mourner who learns to say goodbye, but also the dead. BLACKBIRD – REBIRTH will not premier until 28 February 2020. We are offering early consolation: during Boulevard, Hendrik and his team will be working on a composition for BLACKBIRD – REBIRTH. It will result in a musical lecture. Largely English-language, with Dutch surtitles.

Credits
Concept text en performance: Hendrik Aerts
Vocals, performance: Andy Smart
Composition en music: Jonathan Bonny
Coproduction: Station Noord

Where do I end and where do you begin? What is personal space and what is shared space? Growing questions of boundaries, explored by three performers. Theatergroep Troubamour creates inventive, daring, physical theatre.

Credits
Performance and concept: Margit Odems, Marrit Bausch en Anna van Veen
Finals direction: Fabian Santarciel de la Quintana
​Coaching: Pieter Post

Every day, actress and columnist Nazmiye Oral [1969] is here in Josephkwartier to host a lively conversation that underlines the connection between Boulevard and society. Her guests include makers, experts and visitors to the festival. Warm-hearted Nazmiye breaks the ice. Her questions probe deeper and she encourages her audience to think out loud, pleasantly blurring the classic division between interviewees and audience. Nazmiye is an excellent journalist, as she proved last year. Go to festivalboulevard.nl to find out the themes and – see the list above – guests for each day. Nazmiye made a name for herself with the stage show Niet Meer Zonder Jou, a loving duel with her mother. She makes TV-columns for broadcaster NTR’s De Nieuwe Maan.

Credits
Discussion leader: Nazmiye Oral

Sharing is caring! A nugget of wisdom that reigns supreme in the headquarters of Google, YouTube and Facebook. But what impact do social media and influencers have on young people? Theatre maker Eva Line de Boer [1988] interviewed children about their heroes. Further inspiration was found browsing terabytes of likeable internet data. It resulted in Heidi Pippi Sissi Ronnie Barbie, a search for role models. To counter LiL’ Kleine, Famke Louise and Ronnie Flex there’s Heidi, the little Swiss orphan girl that embodies the honest life. What moments would Heidi capture and – with the right filter – upload to the World Wide Web? What if she is bored? How does she survive that mountain of hers, with no wifi?

Credits
Director: Eva Line de Boer
Performance: Roben Mitchell van den Dungen Bille, Jessie Wilms en Kimberley Agyarko

The midriff shaking, the mouth uttering sounds. Caused, usually, by something funny. This is the traditional version, but laughter is considerably more pluriform. In the remarkable dance show Augusto nine dancers respond to anything and everything with laughter. To walking, running or dancing. To grief, euphoria, fear or pain. Always uncontrollable, often uneasy – it hurts to laugh until you’re blue in the face. From ha to ouch. For the laughing body is a difficult thing to choreograph. The performers grow fatigued. Their humanity, which seems to be fading, is mercilessly scrutinised. Alessandro Sciarroni is a fascinating Italian performance artist whose main inspirations are circus and sports. His Augusto is about feeling unconditionally loved, or the pain of not having that. The title resounds with both the first Roman emperor Augustus, and the pie-eyed clown August. He is the timeless loser tripping over his own shoes. Laughing about anything and everything.

Alessandro Sciarroni is on 3 August together with theater historian and cabaret dramaturge Suzanne Kooloos
guest in the Gesprek van de Dag (Conversation of the Day) in Josephkwartier. About laughter as a social strategy. Language is English.

Credits
Choreografie en director:  Alessandro Sciarroni 
Dance: Negen dansers uit de cast: Massimiliano Balduzzi, Gianmaria Borzillo, Marta Ciappina, Jordan Deschamps, Pere Jou, Benjamin Kahn, Leon Maric, Francesco Marilungo, Cian McConn, Roberta Racis, Matteo Ramponi 
Production: Marche Teatro, Teatro di Rilevante Interesse Culturale, CORPOCELESTE_C.C.00#, European Creative Hub, - Maison de la Danse, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Festival GREC Barcelona, Théâtre de Liège, Teatro Municipal do Porto, CENTQUATRE-Paris, apap - Snaporazverein, Theaterfestival Boulevard, Theater Freiburg 
Coproduction: Tanzfabrik Berlin, Centrale Fies, L’arboreto Teatro Dimora di Mondaino 

Performer Liz Aggiss [1952] was a sensation at Boulevard 2018 with her explosive, non-conformist and cleverly constructed solo Slap & Tickle. Having worked with The Stranglers, she won a Total Theatre Award at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival. With her life-affirming anarchy, she’s the sister Iggy Pop never even knew he had. This August, the incomparable, impish Liz is channelling her theatrical and mediumistic gifts for the benefit of Boulevard visitors. The English Channel sees her transformed into a spiritual medium opening wide to the hereafter. Long-deceased heroes speak through her, including the kind-hearted highwayman Robin Hood, the Danish prince Hamlet, the diva of the Berlin cabarets Claire – ‘Ach Gott, was sind die Männer dumm’ – Waldoff and the flamboyant singer Florence Foster Jenkins from New York. But first and foremost, The English Channel is an ode to women ‘of a certain age’ celebrating their rebelliousness and lust for life. 

Aftertalk on Saturday 3 August at 10 p.m., following the performance at 9 p.m.

On Sunday 4 August, Liz Aggiss and theater maker Gian van Grunsven will be guests at the Conversation of the Day in the Joseph Quarter at 4 p.m. About pleasure and generations. Language is English.

Credits
Concept, and performance: Liz Aggiss

Douze points to NOS-radio reporter Martijn van der Zande who is presenting his TLKSHW for the sixth consecutive year at the welcoming pub De Keulse Kar. During four late weekend nigts the amiable Bosschenaar welcomes actors, musicians and other high-profiles. Familiar faces join him as sidekicks. Added word power comes from columnists Mijke Pol and Lucas de Waard. Flunknarf, winner of the NK Improvisatietheater for two years in a row, closes with a rap on the topics of the day.

Job, mortgage, crypto currency, children, moving in together. Yep, you were born to be wild. Breakdance collective 155 [say: one-five-five] embraces the art of motorcycle riding in Trip. #escape #pedaltothemetal

This performance is suitable for all ages. 

The slightly absurdist dance performance Boredom 2.0 takes its inspiration from the drinking habits of the Soviet Union’s white-collar workforce. Two bored men try to escape reality after a long day at the office.

Credits
Director: Andrey 'Drosha' Grekhov
Coproduction: Sample Culture

Two young people share their final moments together. She nearly slips from his fingers, but he refuses to let go. He doesn’t give up. He keeps holding on. A hypnotic duet by dancers Marie Khatib-Shahidi and Youri Peters.

Credits
​Choreografie: Marie Khatib-Shahidi, Youri Peters
Music: Carlos Ema

The faulty brake is a classic nightmare. Rushing towards the inevitable, unable to stop. Or does ‘no brakes’ give a sense of freedom? In the mesmerising performance Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Break the Flemish theatre maker Miet Warlop [1978] throws herself into a Western version of the dervish dance. Its origins lie in Sufism, a mystical tradition within Islam. A priest [the dervish] twirls around endlessly until he becomes ecstatic. Ghost Writer and the Broken Hand Break sees Miet and two fellow performers engage in the mental and physical experiment. Twirling, they attempt to outrun memories and stories and surrender to a pure, dizzying now. Straddling the line between control and loss of it, their circular dance mixes in swirls of recital and live concert. At Boulevard 2018 Warlop exploded a giant teddy bear in her hallucinogenic Big Bears Cry Too. Now the internationally applauded Flemish maker is charging our desires with Semtex to escape the present moment. Miet is also creating work for a Block Box in the festival square.

Credits
Concept: Miet Warlop
Music and performance: Pieter De Meester, Wietse Tanghe, Joppe Tanghe, Miet Warlop
Text: Raimundas Malašauskas, Miet Warlop, Pieter De Meester
Coproduction: Kunstencentrum Vooruit Gent, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin

Sharing is caring! A nugget of wisdom that reigns supreme in the headquarters of Google, YouTube and Facebook. But what impact do social media and in influencers have on young people? Theatre maker Eva Line de Boer [1988] interviewed children about their heroes. Further inspiration was found browsing terabytes of likeable internet data. It resulted in Heidi Pippi Sissi Ronnie Barbie, a search for role models. To counter LiL’ Kleine, Famke Louise and Ronnie Flex there’s Heidi, the little Swiss orphan girl that embodies the honest life. What moments would Heidi capture and – with the right lter – upload to the World Wide Web? What if she is bored? How does she survive that mountain of hers, with no wifi ?

Credits
Director: Eva Line de Boer
Performance:Roben Mitchell van den Dungen Bille, Jessie Wilms en Kimberley Agyarko

Credits
Performance: Margo Verhoeven, Malgorzata Kowalewska
Director: Monika Kowalewska
Technique: Marcel Bruinshoofd
Decor: Sanne Danz
Text: Peter Dictus 
Coaching: Annemiek Nienhuis, Martijn Bouwman 
Director advice: Anker Boerstra
Music Yori Olijslagers 
dank aan Poolse Volksdansgroep Cracovia, Julia van der Graaf
Coproduction: Jeugdtheaterplatform Wildpark, Parktheater Eindhoven, Cultuur Eindhoven en Bureau Pees

According to witnesses, Billy the Kid [1859-1881] killed two dozen people. Now even though he was under age, this makes him worse than a mere rascal. But right before Billy was to be hanged, he escaped. Two deaths later, he had an unfortunate encounter with a bullet after all. The Kid was a desperado of mythical proportions, as the many films, songs, biographies and scientific treatises about him teach us. And yet he always escapes a check and double check. Did he ever even exist? Do we prefer fiction over fact? In this piece of music theatre Touki Delphine and Nineties Productions study the concept of ‘the truth’ in the post-truth era. With diesel-soaked live music: from country to hiphop, to Tom Waits and David Bowie.

Credits
On stage: Yannick Noomen, Rik Elstgeest, Chris Doyle, Marius Mensink, Maya Mertens, Orpheo McCord, Mitchell Yoshida
Off stage: Anne Maike Mertens, Floor Houwink ten Cate, Sanne Vanderbruggen

CC Smugglers | CA

CC Smugglers started off as young British street performers. However over the years their infamously engaging live performances and innovative brand of self promotion saw them take the show on to stages and audiences across the world.

The six-piece band hailing from across the UK have earned a reputation as a phenomenal live tour de force, earning them a reputation across a multitude of genres. Current single ‘Well Well Well’ showcases one of many strings to CC Smugglers’ bow that features across album ‘How High’. A barnstorming, banjo driven track, it features the folk element of their palette which also touches upon Americana, Country, Blues, and Soul; all brought together on this album by the production which presents their live sound as honestly as possible –a true band of raw, high-octane live performers.

The high-energy dance show for young audiences Buurman in de Natuur sees the neighbours take to the wild. They rake and sow and harvest and become self-supporting: their own nursery, careful recycling. But nature will take its course, as hailstorms and fungous disease prove. The watermains springs a leak. But the men’s morale cannot be crushed. It’s their nature to be cheerful. A show full of laughter about the beauty of all that nature brings, but also about the plastic soup in the ocean, CO2 emissions and melting ice caps. Once again, choreographer and dancer Andreas Denk, a former member of the Hans Hof Ensemble, uncovers the absurdity of man.

Credits
Performance: Andreas Denk en Ilja Surla/Cherif Zaouali
Director: Ton Offerman

Are you over thirty, and sometimes nostalgic for when you were still becoming someone? Not to worry: follow Theater Artemis’ ten special shamans and saunter right back into your past. Back to that sense of everlastingness, dynamo strength and snow-white naivety. Ten teenagers are offering you an opportunity. Just this once, you can join their party, in a special location. At the box-office you hand in your mobile, social status and responsibilities. You bring your own booze and questions. But think: will this be an ordinary underage get-together or a confronting ritual? Will you take home some of their youthful insights and energy? A pilot light, a drop of the elixir of life? Theater Artemis, the stage anarchists from ’s-Hertogenbosch who play around the world winning impressive awards everywhere they go, made the hit show Hallo Dampkring [Hello Atmosphere] for Oerol and Boulevard 2017. Children called grownups to justice about the climate. Now, teenagers are addressing us. Please note: this is a show for grownups.

Credits
Director: Liesbet Swings
Final direction: Jetse Batelaan
Performance Joris Buizer, Sayo Cadmus, Matthijs Daams, Tim Gerrits, Rachèl Haesen, Luuk Matthijssen, Ghislaine Pelders, Eva Punter,Jose en Schouten, Lisa van de Wiel en Misstique de Winter

Upon their raid, on 6 May 1994, the gendarmes came to understand why Geert Jan Jansen’s French mansion smelled of turpentine. They stumbled upon more than 1,600 works of art: from Dalí and Picasso to Appel and Hockney. For twenty years, master forger Jansen was able to deceive the art world. Until the day he made a mistake. A big one. In the documentary theatre show True Copy, Geert Jan Jansen [1944] talks about his life and work. Meticulously scratching away at the art system that runs on greed, hypocrisy and snobbery. “The only one who never gets any recognition, is the forger. Unless he is exposed,” Jansen sighs. With True Copy the Flemish company BERLIN is testing our gullibility. For the charming Jansen breathes thinner. His intoxicating story touches on the key question: do we want the truth, or a lie of wondrous beauty? Many journalists are suppressing their answer since the publicity stunt pulled by BERLIN in November 2018 – the stolen Tête d’Arlequin by Picasso was said to have been found in Romania. In 2017 BERLIN came to Boulevard with their show Zvizdal, about the ghost town near Chernobyl of the same name. Berlin is also creating work for a Block Box in the festival square.

Credits
Concept an director: Bart Baele & Yves Degryse
Performance: Geert Jan Jansen
Coproduction: deSingel, le CENTQUATRE, Het Zuidelijk Toneel, Brighton Festival, C-TAKT, Theaterfestival Boulevard, PACT Zollverein

For 3,500 pages, Karl Ove Knausgård [1968] exposed his soul to the world. The Norwegian author put it out there for all to see, sparing neither himself nor others. It was his way of trying to overcome the banality of his life. His autobiographical saga brought him countless literary awards, a broken marriage and damaged friendships. In their monologue KNAUS, the Flemish director Alexia Leysen [1988] and actor Valentijn Dhaenens [1976] portray a man asking himself some tough questions. Like: “Why?” or “Who am I?”. Because even though God may be dead and heaven hollow, Knaus has an inkling that somewhere in the universe there’s something of value. As he stumbles from the stars to a pile of nappies, this hope is what keeps him going. During her research for this monologue, Alexia spoke to fifty readers of Knausgård. Well-known ones alongside unknown ones. Using an old Hasselblad camera, inherited from her grandfather, she took their portraits. Her research question: do readers see themselves in Knaus, who has been called a sombre mascot of contemporary man? Leysen is a co-founder of the Flemish theatre collective BRUT.

Credits
Director: Alexia Leysen
Performance Valentijn Dhaenens
Text: Alexia Leysen naar Knausgård

Performer Liz Aggiss [1952] was a sensation at Boulevard 2018 with her explosive, non-conformist and cleverly constructed solo Slap & Tickle. Having worked with The Stranglers, she won a Total Theatre Award at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival. With her life-affirming anarchy, she’s the sister Iggy Pop never even knew he had. This August, the incomparable, impish Liz is channelling her theatrical and mediumistic gifts for the benefit of Boulevard visitors. The English Channel sees her transformed into a spiritual medium opening wide to the hereafter. Long-deceased heroes speak through her, including the kind-hearted highwayman Robin Hood, the Danish prince Hamlet, the diva of the Berlin cabarets Claire – ‘Ach Gott, was sind die Männer dumm’ – Waldoff and the flamboyant singer Florence Foster Jenkins from New York. But first and foremost, The English Channel is an ode to women ‘of a certain age’ celebrating their rebelliousness and lust for life. 

Credits
Concept, and performance: Liz Aggiss

OPEN STUDIO

Choreographer Mélanie Demers opens the doors of her studio on 9 August between 2:30 pm and 3.30 pm. During Boulevard Festival she works on her Danse Mutante, a relay choreography. The dancers started with Demers in Montréal, worked with Ann Liv Young in New York, and subsequently flew to Bamako to work with Kettly Noël. Demers presents and talks about this extraordinary project, which will be shown in its entirety during Boulevard 2020. After this year’s Boulevard they’ll go to Antwerp for the last part, where Ann van den Broek will ‘mutate’ the final episode.

Florian Myjer [1992] and Kim Karssen [1996] are plunging headlong into the world of the Bloomsbury Group, a mixed group of artists and thinkers from early 20th century Britain. Among the London-based eccentrics were writer Virginia Woolf, fellow penman E.M. Forster and the economist Maynard Keynes. In Bloomsbury, Florian and Kim probe the ideas streaming forth from these exceptional souls who – with an eye to the LHBTQI-community – took aim at the all too strict Victorian notions of sexuality and identity. Bloomsbury is a Thespian feast for Anglophiles, lovers of literature and romantics. At Boulevard 2018 Florian excelled in his solo Oliver and in Gesualdo by De Warme Winkel, the high-energy contrarians with whom Kim has also performed.

Credits
Concept, text en performance: Kim Karssen, Florian Myjer
final direction: Jip Vuik

A viewer’s gaze can be framed. This is demonstrated in the intriguing dance show Framing the Circle by the Flemish choreographer Benjamin Vandewalle. Like a living camera you circle around the dancers and become the creator of your own film. And Benjamin proves his love of toying with people’s perceptions again in his installation Peri-Masks. It is a wearable version of Peri-Sphere, the clever periscope-system Vandewalle presented at Boulevard in 2017.

This performance is suitable for all ages.

Credits
Concept: Benjamin Vandewalle
Dance: Alice Van Der Wielen, Benjamin Vandewalle

A viewer's gaze can be framed. This is demonstrated in Benjamin Vandewalle's installation Peri-Masks. It is a wearable version of Peri-Sphere, the clever periscope system Vandewalle presented at Boulevard 2017. 

Do I think or am I subjected to thoughts? Could it be that I am being thought? And what is it like for the over 7 billion others I share this world with? Interesting questions like these form the basic material for 10’000 dingen. Tackling mental processes like the above, the Flemish Michiel Deprez cleverly interweaves physical theatre, circus and philosophy. To witness: three people are trying to turn their insides out. From an unstoppable flow of eloquence to meditative drip-drop, and from a freeform monologue to uncensored transparency. The title 10’000 dingen (10,000 Things), derived from Taoism, refers to the diversity of all that is simultaneously one.

Credits
Concept en creation: Michiel Deprez
Performance en creation: Annemarie Platteschor, Annemieke Ros, Gity Qadiri, Koen Van Dooren, Linda Lugtenborg, Martina Gunkel, Pieter Visser, Silbe Mijnlief, Susette Peters
Coproduction: De Nieuwe Vorst, Podium Bloos,Theaters Tilburg, Festival Cement

Performance in context off PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant 

Four young dancers are moving across, in between and underneath two dozen matrasses – but really, all prepositions apply. They run, jump, fly, duck and fall. They get back on their feet. Every time. It turns the acrobatic dance concert Lepeltje Lepeltje into an ode to children’s unrestrained playfulness. Added charm: live music, which is never secondary to the dance for this Utrecht-based company. De Dansers were inspired by a quote from the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy for their high-energy family show: “The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” In 2018 they came to Boulevard with the irresistible Shake Shake Shake. 

Credits
Choreografie: Josephine van Rheenen
Dance: Yoko Ono Haveman, Youri Peters, Fleur Roks, Hans Vermunt
Music: Hans Vermunt

Does strip club La Luna ever play the hazy song The Dark Side of The Moon? We couldn’t say. But life can get pretty hazy in there, as Annica Muller [1991] knows. The stage solo Burning Butterfly, set inside La Luna, is based on her own experiences as a striptease artist. Annica’s search to find her identity and love meanders through destructive urges and addiction. But redemption awaits. Burning Butterfly offers an abrasive take on sexuality, boundaries and power.

Credits
Text en performance: Annica Muller
Final direction: Casper Vandeputte
Music: Marius Mensink

The winners of the Kunstbende contest Noord-Brabant 2019 are touring the festivals this summer. They have won and will win your hearts with their language, theatre and music. For unsuspecting readers: Kunstbende is the national contest for talented young creatives aged 13 – 19. Theaterfestival Boulevard, 35 years old herself, is welcoming the young ones with arms wide open.

Their physical qualities vary widely. As do their countries of origin. But the one thing they have in common is the realisation that our bodies are constantly at work: sweating, relaxing, laughing, thinking, standing and running. As professionals in physical work, the four of them all search for ways to keep the body in shipshape. In the preview Lands of Concerts: Body Work Edition audiences can participate in this cross between a workshop and a performance. Its theme: what specifically does each body need? And, more importantly: what exactly does it mean to say you’re ‘feeling good’? At Boulevard 2018 Jija Sohn [1982] hushed audiences with her performance Kyabajo.

Credits
Performance: Jija Sohn, Andrea Zavala Folache, Lucy Wilke, Gika Wilke
Coproduction DansBrabant

Preview in context of PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant

DIY-stores offer endless shelves with screws and nails. We love securing things in this wobbly world. Opinions are another thing we like to pin down, with key bolts. Or are they not as firm and fast as our dinner conversations, talkshows and Twitter make us think? De Kantelaar is an intriguing site-specific show by Schippers&VanGucht. To loosen up your thinking, De Kantelaar lets you swing. The twists of author Hans Sibbel’s mind will increase your chances of swinging round. For standing still is not an option.Jellie Schippers and Myriam van Gucht are the founders of this inventive company that showed strong performances at Boulevard before.

Credits
Concept and realization: Schippers&VanGucht
Text: Hans Sibbel [LEBBIS]
Performance: Eva Meijering
Composition:Joeri Knapelinckx

To quote a letter from Mime-performer Ariadna Rubio Lleó [1982] to Pocahontas, the legendary Powhatan-princess: “I am going to make a show in which I play you! Usually I am cast as a Latina cleaning lady or some exotic whore, because of the way I look, but finally, here’s a wonderful opportunity for me. I will start with the Walt Disney picture. […] I think you are very brave to face your strict father. A true sign of emancipation. […] My show deals with doing something that really isn’t allowed. Appropriation, of sorts. But with stories. A bit like ‘we Europeans’ have done with ‘you people’, right?” In the preview of Pocahontas Ariadna explores her confused identity with a sense of guilt, but also with pride.

Credits
Concept en performance: Ariadna Rubio Lleó
Spelbegeleiding: Gerindo Kartadinata

Building Control Departments strictly monitor our compliance with dozens of laws and by-laws. Meanwhile, we are wrecking the planet without a permit. High time to start a new civilisation. On the outskirts of ’s-Hertogenbosch, in the slurry of Groote Wielen, among the cranes and workmen’s shelters, De Veenfabriek is establishing the island empire of Atlantis. Based on music, theatre and gastronomy – food is an important element in the show – twelve performers of the Leyden-based theatre company are constructing a DIY-habitat. And it’s no luxury, with today’s Europe increasingly disappointing, with Brexit, raw nationalism and the refugee crisis. De Veenfabriek’s festival hit Pinokkio made it to the top three shows of 2018 in Parool, Dagblad van het Noorden and NRC. The same artistic team [Joeri Vos, Teun Smits, Paul Koek] are now creating Atlantis, featuring sounds, stories, imagination and conspiracy theories. Bold, absurdist, but positive. De Veenfabriek’s pet themes: growth, struggle, art, and the future. Breaking new ground, do not miss this!

This performance is suitable for anyone over 9 years old. 

Credits
Director: Joeri Vos
Music: Paul Koek
Text Teun Smits, Joeri Vos
Cast: Simon Boer, Roland Haufe, Milena Haverkamp, Ruta van Hoof, Paul Koek, Ton van der Meer, Phi Nguyen, Gerjan Piksen, Teun Smits, Niki Verkaar, Joeri Vos, Bastiaan Woltjer

If you collect all the newspapers describing the horrors of Aleppo, you can build a tower. Its location: the south-facing corner of the Great Mosque in the Syrian city, which featured a minaret for over 1000 years. A pile of newspapers as a poor replica, for the holy column has lain in ruins since 2012. In #minaret, a show for six dancers, three musicians and a drone, the Lebanese choreographer Omar Rajeh circles a number of questions above our heads. Can cities die? Do their ideals, cultures and stories die with them? How do the survivors find their feet? Can they in a devastated city? #minaret is a show by Maqamat, the international dance company from Beirut, the trendy city that was just as ruined in 1982 as Aleppo is today. But #minaret is more than a dance show. Not just because of the video images and live soundscape inspired by Aleppo’s musical heritage. Omar Rajeh considers #minaret also an act of resistance to the increasing numbers applauding extremism, conservatism and fanaticism. In Syria and across the world.

On Tuesday 6 August, Wendy Lubberding will have a follow-up discussion with choreographer Omar Rajeh and his team after the performance of 8.30 pm in the Theatercafé in Theater aan de Parade. The makers tell about working on these performances and the audience has the opportunity to ask questions. In English.

Credits
Concept and choreo: Omar Rajeh
Dance: Antonia Kruschel, Charlie Prince, Mia Habis, Moonsuk Choi, Yamila Khodr, Omar Rajeh
Music: Joss Turnbull, Mahmoud Turkmani, Pablo Palacio, Ziad El Ahmadie
Coproduction: Romaeuropa Festival, BIPOD, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden i.s.m. Tanzfabrik Berlin, Charleroi Danse- centre Chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles, Tanzmesse nrw en Advancing Performing Arts project

Renate Schoep is an interpreter for animals. Early in her lifetime she found she felt safe around animals, the way she never felt at home. After getting divorced she was trained in communication and healing techniques for dogs. Today she treats a wide variety of domestic animals in her mobile surgery. Servaes Nelissen creates tragi-comical shows that are a mix of play, cabaret, puppetry and mime.

Credits
Concept, performance and director: Servaes Nelissen
Final direction: Marijn van der Jagt

Mond deals with the power of language. A topical issue: what can and cannot be said these days? What do we refuse to tolerate any longer? Cie. Perelman takes you to the highest reaches and the lowest ebbs of our linguistic history. Brazenly, full of laughter and with plenty of intriguing thoughts. This Nijmegen-basedtheatre company loves academic research from a fresh, off-kilterperspective. After Buik at Boulevard 2018, this is the second instalment of their Nu Trilogie.

This performance is suitable for anyone over 14 years old. 

Credits
Text: Iona Daniel
Performance: Wouter van Elderen en Lonne Gosling
Director: Ilse Schaminée

“Everything I tell you tonight, is a lie. Nothing I say is true. I’ve been an ace at lying ever since I was a child…” Working with De Koude Kermis, Paméla Menzo [1975] showcases her highly eventful childhood. Her philosophy: if your story easily measures up against your average Shakespeare, what’s to stop you from telling it?

Credits
Text and performance: Paméla Menzo
Music: Anne van Dorp
Dramaturgy: Anne van Dorp
Final director: Sanne van Rijn

She lives inside the folds of the atlas, between two maps. Cradled, to the left, in Belgium; rooted to the right, in Iran. In between, a captivating no-man’s land, all hers. Theatre maker Sachli Gholamalizad [1982] impressed Boulevard audiences in 2016 and 2018 with her family histories A Reason to Talk and [Not] My Paradise. This summer she is adding nuance to visitors’ views of womanhood. Her musical tale Let us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season cuts definitions of ‘woman’ and ‘emancipation’ loose from the [Western] concrete they have been poured into. Sachli departs from songs, poetry, and research into two Iranian pioneers of womanhood: pop singer Googoosh [1950], who idolises her sexuality, and the modest poet Forough Farrokhzad [1934-1967].

Credits
Text and performance: Sachli Gholamalizad

Ah, la France! Aimé et detesté. On the one hand there’s l’amour, Culture with a capital C and seven-course meals washed down with calvados. On the other: reflective vests, terrorist attacks and pitch-black predictions by Houellebecq. For all those who aren’t visiting France this summer, here’s your chance to cuddle up to the country anyway: comedian Patrick Nederkoorn [1983] and pianist/chansonnier Guido van de Meent are singing Aznavour, Brel and Piaff, translated into Dutch. And they tell stories about unknown singers, failed holiday romances and a blackened cathedral. Patrick, a theology student and town councillor in a previous life, is a graduate from the Koningstheateracademie in ’s-Hertogenbosch and won the 2019 Annie M.G. Schmidt Prize. Guido won the 2008 Concours de la Chanson. 

Credits
Performance en vocals: Patrick Nederkoorn
Music en vocals: Guido van de Meent

In a coalition agreement or the closing argument in a court case. But also in a love letter or a written complaint. Every time it is used, language proves its power to persuade. One masterly example is the spoken word performance Short of Lying. Wordcrafter Luanda Casella [1977] has ingeniously composed a text about bluff, bullshit and mystification. She uncovers the mechanics of misleading communication: framing, alternative facts, window dressing, storytelling-aimed-purely-at-profit. For the art of the story has been hijacked. Luanda was inspired by authors like Dostoievski, Calvino and Heller, who like to work with unreliable narrators in their novels. Her award-winning performance, in the shape of a TED Talk, is in English with Dutch surtitles.

Credits

Written and performed by Luanda Casella

Dramaturgy Sébastien Hendrickx

Coaching Tom Dupont

Scenography Felix Fasolt

Costume & scenography assistant Joy Vervaeke

Soundtrack Pablo Casella

Light design Maria Dermitzaki

Production Katrien Reist and Julia Reist (arp)

Support & residencies

Workspace Brussels, WP Zimmer, Campo, CC de Grote Post, KASK School of Arts, W I P C O O P/ MAF, VERBO International Performing Arts Festival / Galeria Vermelho (São Paulo), Stad Gent and Vlaamse Overheid

Sven Ratzke is blessed. With a direct line to Bowie. In a spiritual sense, of course. The singer/entertainer proved it at Boulevard 2018, where his show Starman soared beyond the superlative. Ratzke and Bowie floated far above the moon, and the audience. This summer Ratzke [1977] is presenting a different side to his idol: Bowie the great songsmith, the eggshell poet. In an intimate setting he broaches Bowie-esque themes like mortality, love, and death. Ratzke dips some of these stories in correction fluid, to wash away the annoying line between truth and imagined truth. Where Are We Now is a journey across Bowie’s near cinematic universe. Character to character, scene to scene, until the essence is laid bare. 

Credits
Vocals: Sven Ratzke
Piano: Christian Pabst

TECH by Firma MES from The Hague consists of three solos, each exploring the relationship between man and technology. TECH I is a monologue in which Roos Eijmers [1985] takes a closer look at the hyper-intelligent domestic robot Alice. What if Alice surpasses the human? TECH II is a music-driven performance in English by Lindertje Mans [1986]. It tackles the life of Robin, a sex robot: her birth in a factory, her first time in use, her recycling. Can we have intimate relationships with machines? TECH III is a stage adaptation of Stephen Knight’s cinematic masterpiece Locke. Daan van Dijsseldonk [1986] portrays a man who tries to keep his life from crashing to a standstill during a nocturnal drive. Handsfree, heart-bound.

Credits
Text: Jibbe Willems [I] Roald van Oosten en Lindertje Mans [II] Stephen Knight en Casper Vandeputte [III]
Performance: Roos Eijmers [I] Lindertje Mans [II] Daan van Dijsseldonk [III]
Director:Thomas Schoots

Hiphop theatre collective DIEHELEDING likes to put a defibrillator to classic texts. With their previous kiss of life, Fox Populi, they resuscitated Reynaert the fox. During Boulevard they are making the heartbeat heard of the Arabian Nights. Their 1001 is a mix of Arabian hiphop, original stories by princess Scheherazade and their own stories. Close your eyes. Think of a sultry, soft-erotic Oriental night with low beats, soft mattresses, intelligent wordplay and sensual hiphop.

Credits
Performance: Steven Ivo, Annebel Overbeeke, Dalorim Wartes, Nick Livramento Silva, Merel Pauw
Concept and director: Jip Vuik

Millenials Frank and Ivo are already a boldfaced footnote in history. Because in their attempt to become famous, they accidentally change the world. The proof is in their razor-sharp music theatre show De Derde Generatie. Among scattered recording equipment, instruments and beer cans, they write a sensitive hit song about how hard it is to change behaviour. But making the individual secondary to the community? Hmm… ?

Credits
Director: Jeek ten Velden
Concept: Sun City
Music:Ivo Schot, Frank van Kasteren

She lives inside the folds of the atlas, between two maps. Cradled, to the left, in Belgium; rooted to the right, in Iran. In between, a captivating no-man’s land, all hers. Theatre maker Sachli Gholamalizad [1982] impressed Boulevard audiences in 2016 and 2018 with her family histories A Reason to Talk and [Not] My Paradise. This summer she is adding nuance to visitors’ views of womanhood. Her musical tale Let us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season cuts definitions of ‘woman’ and ‘emancipation’ loose from the [Western] concrete they have been poured into. Sachli departs from songs, poetry, and research into two Iranian pioneers of womanhood: pop singer Googoosh [1950], who idolises her sexuality, and the modest poet Forough Farrokhzad [1934-1967].

Credits
Text and performance: Sachli Gholamalizad

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” Yeah, yeah, great song. But despite all the hair on his chest, that singer never did get a straight answer to his question. What, you think life is normal for any of us? Come on! Keep your insecurities to yourself. By the way, the Queen song doesn’t have anything to do with the show. It’s just an example. Or are those not allowed anymore? What are you going to do, go to the box-office and complain about misleading promo texts? Suit yourself. It’s not as if nothing else is wrong in the world. The delightfully disruptive […..] A show that doesn’t give a shit about its own vague title sees three young people take to the stage, with as much confidence as can be expected of them. Clear proof of their existence, and their [in]ability to be cool. Director Jetse Batelaan is winning so many international awards that the Artemis trophy-cabinet has come unhinged.

This performance is suitable for anyone over 12 years old. 

Credits
Director: Jetse Batelaan
Performance: Carola Bärtschiger, Elias de Bruyne, Willemijn Zevenhuijzen
Music: Les Trucs [Toben Piel, Charlotte Simon]
Decor: Theun Mosk
Coproduction: Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Ruhrtriënnale 2018-2020

The source at Chaudfontaine is 1600 metres deep. That’s shallow, to Dez Mona. The Antwerp-based band delves deep into its own soul. Initially they resurfaced carrying jazz, gospel and esoterica. Now it’s alternative pop, from a deeper well. The result is a musical adventure with mesmerising trips, swooping ballads and serene narrations. Some of the themes on their latest album Book of Many, which was met with great acclaim: unconditional love, gender, guilt, loss and hope-in-the-dark. Singer Gregory Frateur is joined onstage by accordionist Roel Van Camp, guitarist Sjoerd Bruil and pianist/guitarist Tom Pintens.

Credits
Vocals and music: Gregory Frateur, Roel Van Camp, Sjoerd Bruil, Tom Pintens

Hemmed in by the nature reserves Bossche Broek, Sterrenbosch and the Halder hamlet, is the Haanwijk estate. Not just a favourite hangout for grasshopper warblers and European weatherfish: the Tilburg-based soundsmiths Strijbos & Van Rijswijk love it too. They tread carefully, because nature commands respect as well as attentive listening. Their Signaal bij Haanwijk is a fascinating aural rendering of the landscape. Visitors experience a one-kilometre landscape opera as they walk. The woods and meadows are traced by a soundtrack and live soprano voices. Strijbos & Van Rijswijk’s cross-media electro-acoustic music is highly praised internationally. In the Netherlands their compositions have accompanied work by United Cowboys, Panama Pictures and others.

Credits
Composition and director: Jeroen Strijbos en Rob van Rijswijk
Vocals: Bauwien van der Meer, Els Mondelaers, Linde Schinkel
Choreografie: Benjamin Vandewalle en Rita Hoofwijk
Libretto research: Ilja Hijink

Three bodies and some cardboard and paper. These are the plain elements with which the family show nesten renders the world. Its three characters seem to be looking for something. A friend? A roof? A home? Cardboard boxes offer a solution: the three find each other in constructing a startling universe. The poignant nesten is ‘Fragile’ but not ‘This side up’: its creators keep shifting their perspective and that of their audience. Moreover, nesten is testimony to the timelessness of the oldest line of Dutch love poetry, which translates as: ‘All the birds have built their nests, except for you and me. What are we waiting for?’ The slightly surrealist, richly imagined nesten was made under the colours of fABULEUS from Leuven.

Credits
Concept and perfromance: Anna Bentivegna, Zoë Demoustier, Ayrton Fraenk
Final direction: Jef Van gestel

One day, death is going to come knocking politely on your door. What will you do, unsuspecting and welcoming as you are? You open the door. End of story. But things may end in more exhilarating ways, as choreographer Tabea Martin shows. In her wonderful dance show Forever she queries her audience on life, death, and immortality. Sounds tombstone-heavy, but in Martin’s playful hands it isn’t. Facing the adults, who cling to science, religion and spirituality, she places children, who fantasize about death and the afterlife. The Swiss choreographer finds her material in interviews, games and workshops with children aged 8 to 12. Their stories are like life buoys on the ocean. Forever is a show of unprecedented beauty, imagery and joy. A life-affirming must-see for adults and young audiences from age 8. Tabea Martin showcased her considerable imaginative powers at earlier editions of Boulevard. In 2018 four dancers excelled in her Pink for Girls & Blue for Boys.

This performance is suitable for anyone over 8 years old. 

Credits
Choregrafie: Tabea Martin
Dance: Tamara Gvozdenovic, Rebecca Journo, Miguel do Vale, Daniel Staaf, Benjamin Lindh Medin
Coproduction: Kaserne Basel

Show Me is a dance performance, an exercise in watching, a reflection on revealing ourselves, a game of fiction and reality, but also a talk show we are all guests in. With their audience, three performers feel out the do’s and don’ts involved in watching, showing and being watched. What would be situations in which we would rather not share our bodies, and why? With its references to online behaviour, Show Me welcomes a shared experience. Everyone’s presence and choices become part of a physical party game, revealing dormant social codes and creating a conversation. Daring, probing, honest. The 100Hands works at the crossroads of contemporary dance, live performance and location theater. At Boulevard 2018 they caught the attention with 25Feet.

Credits
Concept en choreografie: Jasper Džuki Jelen, Mojra Vogelnik Škerlj, Jade van den Hout
Performers: Jade van den Hout, Maria Madeira, Mojra Vogelnik Škerlj
Coproduction: DansBrabant

Performance in context of PLAN Talentontwikkeling Brabant

What rights does a person have who only comes in on Sundays to carve the roast? When we are all trying to eat less meat? And does a stylishly trimmed moustache carry any authority these days? Comedian and theatre maker Minou Bosua [1969] likes to explore the new pillars of society. Supporting her is actor Eelco Smits [1977], and this project sees the two of them playing house, but next level. In the incisive, funny preview of Niet de vaders van Jimmy Parker they are prying away at traditional family role patterns. As an additional troubleshooting force, they have included a gay men’s choir from Brabant, purpose-erected for this show, and singing comforting tearjerkers for old-school and brand-new dads alike. In 2018 Minoux opened the Moeder, Vader, Kinderen trilogy with Moeder mag niet dood.

Credits
Idea, text and performance: Minou Bosua, Eelco Smits
Artistic team: Annelies van Wieringen, Corien Baart en Wannie de Wijn
Music: Het Brabants Homomannenkoor

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” Yeah, yeah, great song. But despite all the hair on his chest, that singer never did get a straight answer to his question. What, you think life is normal for any of us? Come on! Keep your insecurities to yourself. By the way, the Queen song doesn’t have anything to do with the show. It’s just an example. Or are those not allowed anymore? What are you going to do, go to the box-office and complain about misleading promo texts? Suit yourself. It’s not as if nothing else is wrong in the world. The delightfully disruptive […..] A show that doesn’t give a shit about its own vague title sees three young people take to the stage, with as much confidence as can be expected of them. Clear proof of their existence, and their [in]ability to be cool. Director Jetse Batelaan is winning so many international awards that the Artemis trophy-cabinet has come unhinged.

This performance is suitable for anyone over 12 years old. 

Credits
Director: Jetse Batelaan
Performance: Carola Bärtschiger, Elias de Bruyne, Willemijn Zevenhuijzen
Music: Les Trucs [Toben Piel, Charlotte Simon]
Decor: Theun Mosk
Coproduction: Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Ruhrtriënnale 2018-2020

To follow up her clever and entertaining confessional shows De Therapie and Is this porn? No this is love, Julie Cafmeyer [1987] is throwing herself right back into the cavernous depths of love. With great abandon; the Flemish theatre maker wouldn’t, couldn’t do it any other way. For her candid theatre solo Confessions of a White Girl she is mining her most recent amorous and sexual adventures in places like Myanmar, Ruanda and Belarus. It’s not easy, this love across boundaries: she may be a desirable woman for her foreign partners, but first and foremost, she’s a white woman. It disrupts the power play, as Julie Cafmeyer has discovered. Suddenly, she is no longer subjected to the sexual morals of European men, but disturbingly, deserving of privileges because of her Western whiteness. Should she indulge or be ashamed? Julie’s style can be described as atypical stand-up, with a pleasant love of exploring uncomfortable situations. Wry, raw and poetic.

Credits​
From and with: Julie Cafmeyer
Movement Coaching: Lisi Estaras 
Outside eyes: Quirine Racké, Helena Muskens, Yousra Benfquih, Hélène Christelle Munganyende, Sarah Vanderieck, Peter Morrens, Pol Heyvaert
Mental coaching: Johan Vossen 
Production: Wildlife Protection VZW 
Coproduction: De Brakke Grond, De Studio
Production leader: Valentine Galeyn 
Thanks to: de Vlaamse Overheid, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Campo, Boulevard Festival en deBuren 
Extra thanks to: Benny Claessens for creating the title and much more 

We need good boys. Boys who don’t fit the male ideal often think they are doing something wrong and should be more masculine. But aren’t they just what we need, in times of #metoo, homophobia, sexism, racism and violence? Boys Won’t Be Boys is both a stage show and a social movement that unites dancers, singers, rappers, poets and theatre makers. They demonstrate that vulnerability is tough. The jury of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival awarded Boys Won’t Be Boys the Best of Fringe 2018. Sneak peek? Call mobile number +31 6 42 28 04 81 for information and inspiration: from a selflove workshop [two minutes] to a song by Rikkert van Huisstede [1993].

Credits
With: a diverse group of boys and men led by Rikkert van huisstede

The highly praised music theatre show A Seat at the Table is a stylish punch in the stomach: a painful, pressing, confrontational and moving story about everyday racism and exclusion. The text is based on personal experiences as recorded by Saman Amini and Nima Mohaghegh. Sometimes these are so absurd they make you laugh. Jack-of-many-many-trades Saman Amini [1989] came up with the concept for this show, directed it, created the music and performs in it, too. When he was 11 he fled with his sister and mother from the Iranian capital Teheran to the Netherlands, where he graduated from Maastricht Institute of Performative Arts in 2014.

Credits
Performance: Saman Amini, Ward Kerremans, Leandro Ceder, Anton de Bies
Concept en text: Saman Amini, Nima Mohagegh i.s.m. Ward Kerremans, Yannick Jozefzoon, Werner Kolf
Final direction: Arie de Mol
Coproduction: Het Nationale Theater, Likeminds

There’s a bit of a revival going on in circle discussions. Choreographer Kristel van Issum [1972] is also placing chairs in a circle. For her performance-research Circles Of Women Holding Hands she is inviting three groups of ten women – between the ages of 35 and 55 – to have a group discussion with her. Topics will include the zeitgeist, hypes, trends, surviving and female solidarity. To kickstart the talks she will be showing movies by T.r.a.s.h., the famous Tilburg dance collective she was a member of for twenty years. Questions that trigger her: how vulnerable are we willing to be among strangers? How do we find recognition with each other? Circles Of Women Holding Hands will serve as material for a show by Kristel during Boulevard 2020. Language: English

Credits
Concept en performance: Kristel van Issum
Made possible by: DansBrabant

Something grand, that’s what she wants to capture. Absolutely everything, to be more precise. All by herself. And yet, Lisa Verbelen [1988] is not alone. A horde of questions is keeping her company: how to deal with the complexity that seems inevitable from the moment something starts? How to change our thinking – and with it, the world, without simplifying things? Is it possible? Can we keep from simplifying? To follow up the mesmerising ONE., which saw Lisa singing a four-part choral all by herself, she has made ALL., her second solo as a member of BOG, the intriguing Flemish-Dutch collection of theatre makers. Lisa is giving it all: she’s going all-out with music, imagery and language. Nothing is certain but it definitely will be different than expected.

Credits:
Concept en performance: Lisa Verbelen
Final direction: Suze Milius
Production: BOG. en Het Zuidelijk Toneel
Coproduction: de t h e at e r m ak e r & deSingel en De Brakke Grond

Where there's a rise, a fall is sure to follow. Nothing can escape it, not empires, not even love. Thankfully, there's beauty in decay. Leonard Cohen captured it in a single line: "There is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in." The same applies to the grotesque yet loving theatre show Craquelé. In an empty church, a sexton called Tuesday is looking back upon his riddle of a life. Countless villagers come to visit: the gravedigger, the choirmaster, a son, a daughter and other lost souls. Each of them making a bigger sacrifice in life than the empty collection plate would suggest. And yet, the sense of community lingers on, in their fights, their relationships and their celebrations. 

Craquelé is the appearance of tiny fractures and cracks. Not just in paint or glaze. In souls too, as Studio Orka proves. Their Craquelé is a warning: you can never reclaim time unused. So choose, take a leap, and live, as the church legend goes. At Boulevard 2017 these Flemish Theatre makers played the much praised Chasse Patate. 

Credits
Created and performed by: Martine Decroos, Philippe van de Velde, Dominique van Malder, Titus De Voogdt, Janne Desmet, Tania Van der Sanden, Ilse de Koe, Robrecht Vanden Thoren, Peter Monsaert, Lander Scheire, Willem Loobuyck, Maria Dolores Nijns, Staf De Neve, and others
Production: Manchester International Festival and HETPALEIS
Coproduction: Theater Antigone

In German it sounds so strong: Das Nationale Lied. And just listen how the Italian title has a cosy hum to it: La Canzone Nationale. We have to say, the music theatre company Wunderbaum is happy with its recent runs of sing-alongs in Jena and Milan, where they were able to unite simply euphoric crowds. With what, you ask? Homegrown singing. And now it’s time for ‘Nederland Oh Nederland’ to sing its heart out: torch songs, folk songs and Dutch classics. Wunderbaum’s welcoming words: “We are one. We are you. And you will sing along. Because anyone can sing. That is, unless you don’t know our songs.” In Het Nationale Lied, Wunderbaum examines why people are increasingly drawn to music from their native countries. Is it music that connects and takes us back to our origins? Let’s link arms, now that everything is threatening to fall apart. Local choirs and singers are piping up to help us out. 

Credits
Music: Florentijn Boddendijk en Remco de Jong
With: Matijs Jansen, Alberto Malanchino, Marleen Scholten en lokale koren en zangers
Producent: Wunderbaum, Theaterhaus Jena, Mare Culturale Urbano
Coproduction: Theater Rotterdam

Are deep grooves a bit like truffles? Anyone listening to the Artvark Saxophone Quartet, will instantly believe it. Artvark growls, grovels and grabs a hold where others grope in the dark. Partner in crime on their musical quest is Drums United, the – also quadruple – percussion collective. As the Artvark’s saxophones sound out their compelling melodies and soulful soundscapes, the Drums United percussionists rock the auditorium with their ultimate world groove. A timeless trip that includes a meditative choir featuring singsong percussion, steaming saxophone solos and a frenzied rhythm.  Artvark’s members are Rolf Delfos, Bart Wirtz, Mete Erker and Peter Broekhuizen. Drums United consists of Wouter Kuhne, Marco Toro, Alper Kerkeç and Moussé Pathé.

Credits
Music: Artvark Saxophone Quartet, Drums United

It is no ordinary day, the day you get to see One Of These Days. It is the day you witness ingenious juggling and acrobatics, set to music by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin and others. Theaterkrant: four stars

Credits
Performance: Joris de Jong, Harm van der Laan, Hannah Lennox, Maartje Bonarius
Choreografie: Thomas Falk
Dramaturgy Luc van Esch
Music: Jasper Boeke
Scenography: Jolanda Lanslots
Coproduction: Rotterdam Circusstad en Korzo Theater

A man mourns his friend who died, but the dead will rise again. A spectacular voodoo-ritual, for which the creators studied both Krishna-gatherings and rituals from Haiti, Togo, Benin and Suriname.

In the hallucinogenic Zi Za Zussen Zolder, Elena’s babysitter has fallen asleep. The girl musters all her courage and goes up the stairs to the forbidden attic. There she discovers a magical universe which makes Alice in Wonderland look like weak tea by comparison. Suddenly, Elena has sisters, she can roller skate like an Olympian and she meets a prince – yes, on a horse. Is this real? Zi Za Zussen Zolder is a spellbinding dance show for families, by Helma Melis, Batja ten Kortenaar, Caroline Lieffers and her nine-year-old daughter Eloise Bakker. LaMelis loves to create richly imagined dance performances, with leading roles for music, design, fashion, photography, video and film.

Credits
Choreografie, decor en costum Helma Melis
Dance: Batja ten Kortenaar, Caroline Lie ers, Eloise Bakker, Helma Melis

They fear being categorised, the young artists, musicians and spoken word artists in Dukebox. Good! Supported by Den Bosch’ production house for urban & hiphop they present dope tricks, well-chosen words and great music.

In the funny Bonne Question! two performers argue about an idea. Both claim it’s theirs. But common sense [and the stronger body] wins. A poetic mix of acrobatic dance and cyr wheel, or colossal hoop.

Over the moon, free falling, landing on your feet. Every relationship must abide by the laws of gravity, as the dancing man and woman find out in Lance moi en l’air. A circus duet about connecting. Light, earthy, wonderful.

Credits
Choreograpfie en Performance Joli Vyann.

As a follow-up to Yvonne, Prinses van Bourgondië the Flemish company Tibaldus creates another one of Polish playwright Witold Gombrowicz’ absurdist plays. Yvonne – at Boulevard 2017 – saw a prince revolting against the court by marrying the revolting Yvonne. Shocked faces all around. But in Het Huwelijk [1947] the prince takes his rebellion one step further. He plans to overthrow the ruling powers by becoming king himself. Tibaldus demonstrates how every human being is – cannot be anything other than – an actor who uses words to create a universe. The Ghent-based company builds on the play’s musicality by connecting motifs in Gombrowicz’ text with melodies from composed Flemish poliphony.

Credits
Director: Timeau De Keyser
Companios: Hans Mortelmans, Simon De Winne
Text: Witold Gombrowicz
Performance en vocals: Lieselotte De Keyzer, Simon De Winne, Hans Mortelmans, Ferre Marnef,
Katrien Valckenaers, Hendrik Van Doorn, Sander De Winne, Lieven Gouwy

It is no ordinary day, the day you get to see One Of These Days. It is the day you witness ingenious juggling and acrobatics, set to music by Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin and others. Theaterkrant: four stars

Credits
Performance: Joris de Jong, Harm van der Laan, Hannah Lennox, Maartje Bonarius
Choreografie: Thomas Falk
Dramaturgy Luc van Esch
Music: Jasper Boeke
Scenography: Jolanda Lanslots
Coproduction: Rotterdam Circusstad en Korzo Theater

In German it sounds so strong: Das Nationale Lied. And just listen how the Italian title has a cosy hum to it: La Canzone Nationale. We have to say, the music theatre company Wunderbaum is happy with its recent runs of sing-alongs in Jena and Milan, where they were able to unite simply euphoric crowds. With what, you ask? Homegrown singing. And now it’s time for ‘Nederland Oh Nederland’ to sing its heart out: torch songs, folk songs and Dutch classics. Wunderbaum’s welcoming words: “We are one. We are you. And you will sing along. Because anyone can sing. That is, unless you don’t know our songs.” In Het Nationale Lied, Wunderbaum examines why people are increasingly drawn to music from their native countries. Is it music that connects and takes us back to our origins? Let’s link arms, now that everything is threatening to fall apart. Local choirs and singers are piping up to help us out. 

Credits
Music: Florentijn Boddendijk en Remco de Jong
With: Matijs Jansen, Alberto Malanchino, Marleen Scholten en lokale koren en zangers
Producent: Wunderbaum, Theaterhaus Jena, Mare Culturale Urbano
Coproduction: Theater Rotterdam