During the liberation of Drenthe, residents of Dwingeloo and Diever built a bridge over the Drentse Hoofdvaart to allow the liberators to cross. Eighty years later, this event plays the leading role in the play Overbruggen by Roestvrij Theater. A performance about the liberation of Drenthe, cooperation and the feeling of freedom.
The Drentse Hoofdvaart is located on the border of the municipality of Midden-Drenthe and the municipality of Westerveld. When the Canadians advance in April 1945 and the Germans withdraw, blowing up bridges to delay the liberation, residents of Dwingeloo and Diever join forces. They built an emergency bridge at Dieverbrug in one night. Not just an emergency bridge, but a bridge over which tanks can cross the water.
That bridge will return this spring. Not on the Drentse Hoofdvaart, which is too busy to close, but on the Dwingelder Stroom between Lheebroek and Eemster. “We think the story that residents of two villages built such a bridge in one night is such a good story about connection and collaboration,” is artistic director Leander Breen of Roestvrij Theater enthusiastically. “But we are not just going to tell that story. It is about the liberation of Drenthe, where we are increasingly zooming in on the Beilen and Dwingeloo region.”
There will be stands on both sides of the Dwingelder Stroom. During the play, which is performed on both sides of the water, the bridge will be ‘rebuilt’. The structure forms the connection between the two stands and the connection from the past to the present. The central question is: what does freedom mean to you?
The Stainless Theater is a group of young theater makers with experience in making plays about the war. They performed several times in the former Camp Westerbork, where they played stories from the war. “To do this, the young players can delve into the archives and, for example, read letters from that time. This way we can collect as much information as possible to tell the stories of people who really lived,” says Breen. “Because that’s what makes those stories so special. It really happened.”
The group also delved into history for the theater play Overbruggen. “That night eighty years ago, it turned the environment upside down,” the artistic director reflects. “Two villages managed to build a bridge in one night. The next morning at seven o’clock the first tank drove over it to liberate the rest of Drenthe and Friesland.”