There it was finally! The elephant that has been keeping people busy on Texel lately appeared in the center of Den Burg on Tuesday evening and ‘played’ along with Ouwe Sunderklaas. Fortunately, the weather gods were kind to the people of Texel with the annual celebration, where they take to the streets en masse to make fun of all the events of the past year. The audience could enjoy the usually hilarious pieces that were performed on the street, in village halls or in living rooms.
Who has the youth, has the future. This certainly applies to the high turnout among the youngest speulers in Den Burg. The jury was presented with more than twenty performances. “We have seen all kinds of things,” says jury member Udo Visser. “From many elephants to various performances by Hans Klok. There was real play on the street again.”
The organization had also done a lot about it this time. For example, flyers were distributed at various primary schools and children in classes received information about the Ouwe Sunderklaas tradition. “I understand that plays were even performed in some classes,” says Visser.
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Peter Jan Geus has been playing with Ouwe Sunderklaas since he was a child. He also passes this tradition on to his children. “That’s just part of education,” he says. “It is the cradle for adult sports. The turnout in Den Burg was good and the quality was also great. We are very happy with that and it offers perspective for the future.”
His children performed a play about the closure of Dorcas. Later that evening he texted the results. “The children have a nice second prize.”
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In that respect, the youth had a choice of topics. Because a lot had happened on Texel in the past year that inspired a (short) performance. That was allowed illusionist Hans Klok of course not missing, who had received a penalty of 10,000 euros from the municipality because his caravan arrived at the ice rink earlier than agreed. The blonde magician was brought into the spotlight several times.
Also the closure of Dorcas kept people quite busy. After the second-hand store closed last week, a small player decided to personally sell his stuff himself.
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And then among the children there was also the elephant who lately made a lot of news. Texel was captivated by the mysterious animal that appeared in various places on the island. The wanderer was spotted several times in places that had recently been in the Texel news.
“Little elephant on the cart, aren’t you confused? Running away on the ice rink. What kind of story is that?”, said two players with a small elephant on a cart behind them.
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This time the adult actors took their time to perform their piece. This sometimes lasted ten minutes per performance and covered all kinds of topics. Several illusionists Hans Klok passed by (sometimes with assistant Pamela Anderson) and it became clear that media partner Texelse Courant is desperately looking for delivery people. “A newspaper but no delivery person, not today and not tomorrow.”
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But the biggest question was of course: will he come or won’t he come? And indeed he came. The big elephant that dominated the news in recent weeks came in places that were politically sensitive, such as the bridge on Kogerstrand, the Emmalaan, the oil spill in Den Hoorn and the disappearance of the De Pepermolen playgroup in Oosterend.
It was the only performance where there was no speaking, but text and explanations about the various locations were provided by showing signs. “But shhh, we won’t talk about that anymore.”
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Another topic was the ice rink in Den Burg. The municipality has decided to turn it into an exercise park. The intention is for the municipality to draw up a preliminary design together with the users. Various choices came up with Ouwe Sunder: from a parking lot to a vegetable garden.
Even Hans Klok wanted to buy the ice rink to turn it into a beautiful event area. A special representation was that of the grass clumps of the ice rink. “There come a time then we are no longer there, we are discarded by concrete, asphalt or stone.”
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And then the individuality of Texel is lost. Many companies are taken over by national chains. Such as the beer brewery is part of Heineken, hotel De Pelikaan went to Van der Valk and cable operator Kabeltex is taken over by KPN. One player was critical: “How do you see the island in twenty years’ time? Are we going to continue like this or is it finished? Are we in dire straits? Or are we going to let Texel slip away?”
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