The cabinet will probably announce on Tuesday that the theaters can open again, but Arijan van Bavel can no longer be seen in it this season. His Theater of the Farce no longer manages to do it. “It’s sour, yes.”
A quarter of the performances ‘Who sleeps on the couch?’ Theater van de Klucht has already been cancelled, says Arijan. “Performances were planned during the lockdown, but it was not allowed then.”
And from Wednesday it may be allowed again, but the relaxation is now not so great, Arijan thinks. “Full halls are not allowed yet, you will have to keep your distance. Look, if things were to go completely wild now…. But before you have full halls, you will be six weeks further. Because first the marketing has to be started again. ” And then it almost makes no sense. “Then we still have five performances. You can’t make a tour out of that.”
And pushing everything further forward is not always possible either. “Last year we were able to move performances to later in the year. But theaters are often full now. Or they don’t have enough employees to put everything together. Yes, and then things start to get messy.”
The decision not to play this season did not happen overnight. “We’ve all made the decision together, all the actors, the crew, everyone. You hold on for a long time, hold on to hope for a long time. But hey, I’m not Stage Entertainment, I’m just a small production company. And then you go just count your knots.”