For my generation (late generation X/early millennial). The never ending story, the famous fantasy novel by German author Michaël Ende, has about the same status as Harry Potter for the late millennials. This is mainly due to the 1984 film adaptation: Wolfgang Pedersen’s imagination of the world of Fantasy with the help of the studio of the legendary puppet maker Jim Henson left an indelible impression. Interestingly enough, that film only covered the first half of the book, making that part much better known than what happens in the much darker second part. While reading, the young protagonist is drawn into the world of the book, where he saves the fantasy world from destruction in the first part, but turns out to be a tyrant in the second part.
In their stage adaptation of the novel, Het Filiaal theater makers and percussion group HIIIT (formerly Slagwerk Den Haag) are somewhere between book and film. They chose to adapt the entire novel, but keep the design close to that of the film, and musical motifs from the soundtrack also emerge. Moreover, this Dutch-language performance based on a German book has an English title The Neverending Storywhich seems like a very transparent attempt by the marketing department to play on the nostalgia for the film.
The choice to cram the entire novel into one performance has advantages and disadvantages. Given the relative obscurity of the second half of the novel, it is a nice correction that the full story is told here. In this way, editor Don Duyns and director Monique Corvers do justice to the complexity of Ende’s vision: he not only wanted to paint a hopeful picture of the power of fantasy, but also show its dark side. Getting lost in your own imagination can also lead to egocentrism and narcissism, and the book and show do not shy away from showing the devastating consequences of this.
However, that’s quite a complicated arc for two hours of theater. Duyns and Corvers weave through the story at a breakneck pace. The first half in particular suffers from this: the heroic battle of warrior Atréjoe against the all-consuming Nothingness is reduced to a glorified summary, in which the characters are not fully developed and nothing seems to be at stake – even the early death of the horse Artax , which traumatized an entire generation of children, makes no impression whatsoever. Although more time is spent on the second half, the performance never manages to create real tension or an emotional connection with the events.
The beautiful dolls and masks of designer Eva Arends make up for a lot: she knows how to evoke the feeling of a completely different world with her creations. Especially in combination with actor and puppeteer Barend van Daal, the eccentric residents of Fantaië come to life with a lot of humor and imagination.