King Willem-Alexander will visit Drenthe on Monday 12 June, when he will perform the performance East Side Story by Theater On the Other Side (ADAK). The play tells the story of Moluccans who lived in the former camp Schattenberg in Westerbork for twenty years and then moved to Bovensmilde.
The performance leads visitors from the residential area via Hooghalen to the Moluccan neighborhood in Bovensmilde. The king will visit the first two locations of the performance.
After Indonesia’s independence, thousands of Moluccan soldiers and their families came to the Netherlands. Many of them assumed that this would only be temporary. On arrival they were housed in dozens of residential areas. Because little of that remains, part of Schattenberg, on a meadow next to it, has been rebuilt.
The basis for the scenes in East Side Story is formed by collected memories of the people who lived in residential area Schattenberg.
During his visit, the king will receive an explanation of the history of ADAK, for which East Side Story the third performance is after the previous theater productions A temporary stay (2018) and outdoor spel (2019), two other performances about Moluccan-Dutch history.
In the second part of the performance in Hooghalen, where Moluccan meals are served, the king will engage in conversation, the Government Information Service announced. This is done with those involved in the theater performance, representatives from the Moluccan community and with other visitors.