At ‘Night in…’ it’s about very ordinary people, all with their own worries

Director Liliane Brakema (1987) wanted to do things completely differently. This time no adaptation of well-known repertoire – she broke through with modern versions of The mallard van Ibsen and Uncle Vanja by Chekhov – but a completely new story. Not with big tragic characters in the lead role, but with very ordinary people, all with their own troubles, including a lot of loneliness.

Encouraged by Piet Menu, artistic director at Het Zuidelijk Toneel, she went into the neighborhoods and cafes in search of people and their stories. Through a voice-over she tells at the beginning of her performance Night at… that she has met 42 people and that those encounters have been an enormous enrichment for her. Three actors then play all these 42 figures in quick succession as an introduction.

In every city that Night at… two local residents also participate. During the day Night in Breda, when the performance is played in the Chassé Theater in Breda, it is Jan and Wim. The two sober people from Breda are on stage in the flesh and are allowed to tell who they are. One of them has just come out of debt restructuring, we are told. Good looking. Furthermore, just like us, they can watch the actors (Marie Groothof, Toon Kuijpers and Reinier Schimmel).

For the next hour, they focus on playing three of the 42 people: a contact-disturbed boy, an elderly woman who takes care of her sick husband and a clown who has fallen into disrepair. What we should do with this trio remains unclear. They do not transcend their own story and have hardly any contact with each other. Much is depicted with (repeated) movements that show the difficult attempts at contact. Well-intentioned attempts that yield little, just like the performance.