Actor Benja Bruijning convinces in his first solo performance ‘A life’ ★★★★☆

Every life contains moments of tragedy and comedy. Place them side by side, as Benja Bruijning does in his first theater solo A life, and you will see that they are wonderfully similar. That is the aim of this monologue: to make the audience laugh and cry at the same time.

Bruijning previously played in romantic comedies such as Everything is family and sporadically in a tragic play. For his first solo, the actor translated himself A life by the young British playwright Nick Payne. It is a recognizable problem in the thirties. A man loses his father and a few years later has his first child. A son becomes a father. But he’s not prepared for that at all. The man is a little unworldly by nature, neurotic but in a cute way, and clearly privileged. So the perfect person to lose yourself completely in the two emotional whirlwinds that death and birth entail.

The man tells the two stories interchangeably, so that the similarities are emphasized: the abrupt hospital trips, the confrontations with bodily functions and the awkward conversations with loved ones. What becomes especially visible is this man’s inability to non-ironically express his love for his loved ones. Bruijning initially plays him loosely and laconically, but then becomes increasingly tense, like a house cat cornered.

The narration is lightning fast, so that you hardly notice that the text actually has no false notes. All emotions are correct. The monologue therefore has something predictable. But text and game do touch. The detailed anecdotes are often spot on and Bruijning convincingly brings them to life.