Daniël Kolf and Julia Ghysels distinguish as the best theater actors of the year

The VSCD Toneelsprijs, the most important prizes in the theater sector, were presented on the final evening of the Nederlands Theater Festival. The biggest prize went to actor Daniël Kolf, he got the Theo d’Or for his leading role The death of Benny Simons From Orkater. Julia Ghysels received a Theo d’Or for her supporting role Holly Goosebumps from the southern theater. The third Theo d’Or, for the most groundbreaking stage performance, went to the entire ensemble of [meeuw]A performance of Toneelhuis, Olympique Dramatique and Theater Arsenaal.

The prize for best direction went to Elien van den Hoek, director of Before they disappear From the Houten Huis & Theater Stap. The jury calls it “a wonderful choice to let the gnomes play by people with Down’s syndrome”. And she writes that Van den Hoek celebrates “the power of the imagination” in “this at times rather grim fairy tale.”

Both Gouden Krekels, the youth theater prizes, went to Hntjong, the youth theater company in the house of the National Theater. The Golden Krekel for Best Youth Theater Production was for A Country Inside My Head van Dimphna van Kempen/Hntjong. The jury praises the “moving story” and the way in which “the grief about what you have left and the unpientible zest for life of teenage girls” come together. The Golden Krekel for Best Podium Performance in the Youth Theater went to Piet Kooij for his game Only sweet guys van Loek Bakker/Hntjong. About him the jury says it is great that he makes the unrest in the body and head of his character “to central use of his performance.”

Last year the Theo d’Ors went to Maria Kraakman (leading role), Sharlee Daantje (supporting role) and Princess Isatu Hassan Bangura (groundbreaking).

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Theo d’Or supportingDaniël Kolf

In The death of Benny Simons Daniël Kolf plays a young man who is killed in a stabbing on the street at the start of the performance. What follows is a sketch of his life: he gets to know love and is raised by the hard hand of his father, a father who was also raised that way. The fighting spirit that Benny is fatal has been talked to him. Kolf is partly narrator, partly commentator, partly participant, in scenes with his father, mother, brother and girlfriend.

He does that phenomenally, wrote NRC In the review. He is a self -assured adolescent with broad smile and handy talk, but also a vulnerable child who has difficulty with his strict father. When he unexpectedly sees his father crying, Kolf asks him very small: “Are it, Pa?” That sentence, and that soft sound, bursting with the affection. It is a moving moment, the best in the show.

Returning scene is a Kolf as a Bang Kind that does not want to jump into the swimming pool-a funny role for the 28-year-old Kolf, who was swimming champion in his native country. That sporting background also speaks from the physical control he shows in his walk, gestures and dancing. He is completely at ease on the floor. Director Shady El-Hamus, the director who also awarded Kolf in 2019 a leading role in his film The Libigives him plenty of room to excel. And Kolf paid him back by giving the show wings. That Kolf takes this price is therefore extremely earned.

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Theo d’Or contributingJulia Ghysels

In Holly Goosebumps Julia Ghysels plays a handful of rolling from the southern theater: she is the Lamastu, the false mother of the title heroine, she is the goddess Athena and Pythia the Oracle of Delphi. In the hands of director Ada Ozdogan, the show is a crazy Greek myth and cinematic Tarantino-Pastiche, in which the enjoyment of all four actors is.

The Belgian Ghysels (1991) plays partly with a white helmet and when she walks on stilts, she is an impressive, threatening shape, in the smoky dark, with light in her back. She is partly responsible for some severe shock moments: when she stretches her back, a bright, ominous crackling – a witty sound effect sounds.

Between the talking characters of Ozdogan, Ghysels stands out with penetrating dictation. As Pythia, her gritty tone is distorted by the computer into monstrous proportions, while her performance also visibly remains a formal game. As a goddess Athena she is a powerful figure, but also a humble daughter, and a self -assured creator with self -forgive and regret. The jury says it nicely: “Ghysels masterly controls the complex style of Ozdogan: apparently effortlessly she laves between horror and humor, between exalted and banal, and between tongue-in-Cheek and Sérieux.”

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Theo d’Or groundbreaking[meeuw]

What the performance [meeuw]after the part of Chekhov, from the Flemish groups of Toneelhuis, Olympique Dramatiqueen Theater Arsenaal, makes it so special, is that it is played by a group of deaf actors, supplemented with some hearing actors who all speak in Flemish sign language. The makers call it unique that large, professional theater companies are putting themselves on a repertoire text.

In any case, it is certain, because [meeuw] is, also for a hearing audience, a rare sensation. The uptitles translates the gestures on the floor of the players, but also sounds and music, such as barking or pianon nuts. If the players are stamping on the wooden floor, that is not emotion, but a signal that they speak.

[meeuw] makes you realize that you have to look differently. With hearing actors, movements that express the same as the spoken text are soon rated as double or superfluous. But without spoken text, the movements are the core of the language. And as soon as you surrender to it, enjoying expressive gestures, gallant dancing hands, graceful arm movements and visual facial expression is.

The hearing performers, who had learned the sign language especially for this production, also showed their qualities.

Moreover, that new look was promoted smartly by the makers, who showed less and less text on the uptitles, and as a result the audience forced themselves to concentrate on the portrayal of emotions and thoughts. With success.

The melancholy, the vanity and the struggle between the generations that Czechov increases received a new dimension from this ensemble. Nice and very deserved that it produces the makers a Theo d’Or for groundbreaking theater.

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