The new performance by Stefano Keizers is called Hans Teeuwen† The title doesn’t quite cover the meaning of the performance, but it does. Do you still get it? After all, it is exactly such issues that Keizers wants the audience to think about: why should the title of a performance have to say something about its content?
Keizers’ first two performances were praised for their daring and radicalism. No one took the cabaret about cabaret as far as he did. “Seven years ago I lay in a fetal position among the garbage all day long,” says Keizers in his third performance. He was unhappy, failed, something had to change. With this as seed, Gover Meit (34) gave birth to his alter ego Stefano Keizers in 2015. On stage he celebrated his own superfluousness and admonished the audience when they wanted to applaud. By his presence alone, Keizers sabotaged the unwritten agreements between artist and audience. The audience no longer knew when to laugh.
Keizers’ third performance is once again overwhelming and exciting. This time the tension is not so much in the brutality (is he really going to do this?), but in the gradual deconstruction of the character Stefano Keizers. Where Keizers kept Gover Meit out of his first two performances, a battle is now taking place between the two.
Hans Teeuwen is the final piece of a trilogy. In the first part, having a stage was enough for Keizers, it didn’t matter that the audience ran away. In sorry baby Keizers was not pleased with his own material, but it was no longer possible to cancel everything, so he stood there anyway. In Hans Teeuwen Keizers says he has reached the top. After an energetic opening act: “that was good, wasn’t it”. As far as he is concerned, the flowers can settle, because he will get them afterwards anyway. The audience and artist wait in silence for some time for the flowers to arrive. A number of vintage Keizers acts follow: there is no intermission, but Keizers will go get a drink. Upon their return, a cigarette is ignited and a bomb is ignited, so that the ‘built-up tension’ for the intermezzo can be restored.
The climax of the performance is a brilliant discovery in which the concept of climax is stretched and questioned. Keizers tells how he once saw a child deliver a performance that impressed him enormously. His deepest desire is to emulate this feat. Without revealing too much: it takes an excruciatingly long time and the audience has plenty of time to consider whether this is boring or just about boring. When the job is done, Keizer’s frenzied euphoria follows: “what a kick, how heartwarming that you got me through this!”
It is masterly how Keizers then points out to the audience what just happened. Slowly Gover Meit takes over from Keizers. Slowly it also dawns on how sophisticated the performance is. Keizers/Meit ingeniously reflects on themselves, the audience and their relationship. In the end, he makes a drastic decision.