Next week is the day, when The Passion will come to Drenthe for the first time in history. This time, the cast did not opt for a city setting, but for the idyllic countryside, which gives a completely different atmosphere. RTV Drenthe looked behind the scenes and spoke to the actors.
“I like coming to this part of the Netherlands and I think it is beautiful,” says Bas Ragas. “If we had shot in Amsterdam, I would probably have told a nonsense story that the story of The Passion very much fits in Amsterdam, but the whole story fits much better in Drenthe than walking past all the brands with that big cross.”
Ragas plays Petrus in the show. A role that was tailor-made for him. “Peter is very human in the story. He is a bit like we all are, but don’t want to be: in front of the camera we play the hero, but when the camera goes off we are also just people and we say unkind things, then we lie and then we make ourselves more beautiful than we actually are. That is the story of Peter.”
The event is a home game for the three Drenthe disciples. “I recognize all the places where we perform,” says Luuk Haaze, musical actor from Nijeveen.
“I’ve always said: I want to do The Passion again. So I really like this,” says tiktoker Lisanne Dijkstra from Beilen. “And when I read that The Passion was in Drenthe I thought: this had to be like this. This is the version I belong in.”
But the familiar surroundings don’t make it any less exciting. “What people! It’s such a big team,” says Dijkstra. “There are all professionals here and… me,” laughs Annemiek Koekoek, known for Boerzoekt Vrouw, among others. “I think it’s a great honor that I was asked to do this and it’s great that I can participate. I’m amazed.”
Koekoek is seen behind the scenes by the actors as a ‘local guide’. “They always have a lot of questions. About cows, about sheep, how do you live on a farm? Do they only have cows here or also arable land? And then we drive past a potato field and I say that they planted potatoes there last year and then they ask: how do you know that? Well, that is my profession.”
As program maker of Jachtseason and Stuk TV, Thomas van der Vlugt often visits Drenthe. Now he comes to play the role of Doubting Thomas in The Passion.
“I really wanted that role, I was also named after him. It has a lot of meaning to me,” he says. “It’s very different from what I normally do. I was raised very religious. A lot of people don’t know this side of me yet. I find live on TV very exciting. I also said: I’m not going to sing, I’m not going to do that to people.”
Stijn Fransen (disciple) and Milan van Waardenburg (Jesus) would like to come back to Drenthe. “It’s a gift that you have such beautiful locations where you can perform,” says Fransen. “So small-scale instead of that urban violence. Why does it always have to be in the city? Why can’t it just be done here in Diever?”
Van Waardenburg: “We now come to the golden spots in this area. You take them in. Yesterday we shot in a very beautiful cemetery. Near a very beautiful tree, a serene environment. Yes, you normally never go there.” In addition to the cemetery, shooting took place at a sheepfold, the Prison Museum in Veenhuizen and at the Shakespeare Theater in Diever.
Van Waardenburg previously participated as a musical star in major productions such as in the West End in London. Yet he also really enjoys the small-scale. “So I find this very overwhelming,” he says, pointing to the Globe Theater. “I didn’t know this existed until I knew we were going to play here. There is a certain atmosphere here that you can’t just create.”
While preparations for the Live Show are in full swing, some scenes have already been recorded in advance. Watch the video to see what happens behind the scenes.
