In the foyer of Podium Mozaïek in Amsterdam, the masks are finally finished and buzz fills the room. In a friendly atmosphere, a mix of pink to silver hair, from shaved hair to dark-colored curls comes together for theater festival Rrreuring, a platform for new, metropolitan makers.
This sixth edition offers a stage to theater makers, directors, choreographers and spoken word artists. The makers take viewers on a journey from countries they used to consider home and share their growing pains by harking back to events from their childhood.
The large number of performances in which the spoken word is central is striking, partly thanks to the collaboration with Poetry Circle Nowhere. This company presents the spoken word during the festival†artists Suehaylee Vergouwen, Houda Bibouda and Sarah Lucassen, who connect text and performance. Daniëlle Zawadi tells about her Eastern Congolese origin in a musical spoken word performance. Former Amsterdam city poet Gershwin Bonevacia takes the stage with poems about his inner child. And in the podcast real men’s branches the stereotypical man is questioned.
In addition to Bonevacia, it is the turn of Iraqi theater maker Akram Assam on Sunday. With its overcrowded multidisciplinary performance, Five Nights: Sinbad he is the exception at the festival. By even adding dance to his already colorful mix of talk show setting, storytelling, singing and video, he gives the audience little rest.
Assam, together with fellow player Khadija Massaoudi, describes how he grew up in Baghdad with his grandmother, who lived in a dangerous part of the city. He tells how his grandmother, his bibi or habuba, added contemporary elements to stories from the oral tradition. In a similar way, these two also mix the story of Sinbad the pirate with Assam’s perilous journey from Baghdad to the Netherlands.
An intriguing starting point for a performance, but the amount of narrative forms distracts from the more sensitive material and the vulnerable events of Assam’s childhood. That’s a shame because Five Nights: Sinbad has beautiful moments. For example, whenever Assam notices that English words fall short for him, he resorts to his native language. Massaoudi then translates those energetic text fragments for the audience. The gold of this performance is hidden in the love triangle between Assam, Massaoudi and the audience.
In Back to Prinsenplein Gershwin Bonevacia immediately grabs the spectators when he steps into the spotlight with traditional singing in Papiamento. In this preview of his future theater show, Bonevacia constructs a fascinating imaginary conversation between himself and his 10-year-old self, which runs like a thread through the performance.
With his performance, Bonevacia puts his poetry collection When I was little I wasn’t afraid convincingly turned to theater and in this way created an entirely new genre: stand-up poetry or poetic cabaret. Accompanied by music and audio fragments, Bonevacia interweaves a poignant personal story about his sister with an existential question about how it is possible that we can lose ourselves. In addition, he vulnerable and authentic sketches a past full of poverty, social inequality and uncertainty about his dyslexia.
Although he initially wants to prepare his younger self (nickname: Gush) for a hard future, the adult version gradually finds that he doesn’t have all the answers either. ‘Help me, Gush’, because ‘when I was little I wasn’t afraid’.
With Rrreuring, Podium Mozaïek brings a treasure trove of stories and storytellers that are still too little heard, from green to ripe. While Assam’s performance still feels a bit early, Bonevacia seems ready for an evening-long show.