The fire glows again under the peat. The makers of music theater spectacle Veenbrand have picked up the thread again after years of forced corona silence. The performance is scheduled for August and September 2024. Work is already being done on a preview for this autumn.
The plans for Veenbrand were already presented in 2019 with the intention of premiering a year later. The play would be performed at four locations in the Rensenpark, with a starring role for the centrally located savannah.
The municipality of Emmen and the province pledged their support to the production and in January 2020 local (amateur) actors were allowed to report. More than 100 people took a shot at a role in the music theater production.
But as with so many events, the light turned red because of the dreaded virus. Since the relaxation of the corona restrictions, production has remained quiet. Would the Veenbrand have fizzled out? No, is the answer.
Producer Sjoek Nutma, initiator/composer Chris Fictor and the rest of the organizing team have never thrown in the towel. Nutma: “We have been constantly looking for opportunities to continue.” Fictor: “Some stories just have to be told. And this is one of them, we think.”
At the beginning of this month, Veenbrand’s website came to life again, the text of which was written by Dick van den Heuvel (musicals Turks Fruit and Ramses). After two years of silence, there was suddenly the announcement that ‘the weather is brewing’ as far as Veenbrand is concerned. “The corona crisis and the after-effects have played tricks on the plans around Veenbrand. But the fire has never been extinguished in our team. It is brewing again.” It wasn’t much more than that, but Nutma and Fictor are now lifting a corner of the veil for good.
Nutma: “This morning we had a board meeting and we want to realize Veenbrand for next year.” Thirteen performances from mid-August to mid-September. Possibly more if there is enough interest, according to the two.
The theater piece full of song, dance, music and spectacle is set against the background of the fire that completely reduced the peat area around Valtermond to ashes in May 1917. Sixteen people died, more than eighty houses were destroyed and hundreds of hectares of peat and peat went up in flames. The fire lasted four weeks and went down in the books as the largest peat fire in Drenthe history.
Within that historical story, the three main characters struggle with the choices they face. Fictor: “One of those roles is a young woman who actually wants to leave that region.” She would like to follow her passion: drawing. But if she stays in the peat bog, she sees little chance of making that dream come true. Fictor: “At the same time, she wants to be loyal to her family and her environment.” It is these kinds of dilemmas that predominate in the story.
Nutma describes it as a split between compulsion and compulsion, in which a link is made to the present. “The Northern Netherlands is struggling with the so-called brain drain. Young people who leave here because they want to follow their talent or passion.” And that’s not always easy when you have to leave everything you love behind. Or that you are shackled by compelling obligations. “It is a theme that the young people of today also recognize themselves in.”
For this reason, education is also involved in Veenbrand. For example, pabo students from NHL Stenden have put together teaching packages for primary education. With the aim of putting the regional history and culture even better on the map.
In that case, the title of the piece is twofold, Fictor clarifies. The historic peat fire is a metaphor for those passions and conflicts that smolder in everyone’s head. It swelters and swelters and suddenly everything erupts in a sea of scorching flames.
The production has since been adjusted. Initially, the play had three different prologues in different places in the park, each with a different protagonist. Visitors first choose one prologue they want to watch. The final would then take place on the savannah. That has now changed, according to both theater makers. It will be one location, where the full spectacle will be performed.
As a warm-up, Veenbrand will start this autumn with a working theatre, in which parts of the play will be performed. Nutma: “The idea is to warm up in advance. No, we will not do that in the Rensenpark. It will be an indoor location somewhere in the Emmen area. We will not say where that is at first.” There are also auditions for regional acting talent in the fall and spring.
In the run-up to the creation of Veenbrand, tickets have already been sold. Fictor can reassure all buyers. “They are all still valid. Even if they have yellowed.” The organization has also kept extensive records of every ticket sold. Nutma: “People will all get a signal, that will be fine.”
Despite the setback due to corona, Fictor and Nutma never wanted to give up hope that things would not work out. Nutma: “With us, the feeling has always prevailed that we had to continue. In our case you can also speak of a bit of urgency.”