The theater shows a striking number of new, unknown stories in which (a settlement with) the colonial past plays a major role. We highlight ‘Disgraced’ by Black Sheep Can Fly in collaboration with Het Nationale Theater, ‘The plantation of our ancestors’ by Orkater and Kobra Theater with ‘De smeekbede’.
In Disgraced the (in)ability to break free from your origins is central. As an immigrant, do you always remain The Other?
American-Pakistani writer Ayad Akhtar wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning play in 2013 but it is more relevant than ever, says Saman Amini. “It is about origins, religion and identity and that causes a lot of controversy in these woke times.”
Amini brought the hit play to the Netherlands, directed it and plays the leading role of the successful top lawyer Amir Kapoor. “I think it is a very well-written play about a very current subject. Ahktar touches on numerous potential conflicts: between Islam and the West, between Jews and Arabs, between men and women, between white and black people. All underlying pain points are sharply detailed. And so we get a lot of nasty reactions: from Iranians who think I insult Islam, from the Jewish community who think they are being shortchanged.”
Pushed to the limit
Disgraced is cleverly constructed. The lawyer who wants to reach the top has distanced himself from Islam, while his wife is now immersed in Islamic visual culture as an artist. During a dinner with a friendly couple, one Jewish, the other black, the contradictions are brought to a head.
Amini: “Amir, the lawyer, is pursuing a boyhood dream. He wants to reach the top, but in a sense he has to deny himself to get there. You never completely get rid of your identity, the writer shows that beautifully. This mechanism works even more strongly because we live in a time when certain groups believe they have a monopoly on pain. Look, a lot of people are angry and that anger is allowed! Only, when you reduce the other person to a caricature based on your own pain, you are really doing the same thing: you are canceling the other person. That is very evident in this piece.”
‘ Disgraced’, Black Sheep Can Fly, Het Nationale Theater and Senf Theaterpartners. Text: Ayad Akhtar, concept, direction and music: Saman Amini, final direction: Eric de Vroedt, acting: Saman Amini, Charlie-Chan Dagelet, Rick Paul van Mulligen, June Yanez, Selin Akkulak. Tour until December 18.
The performance was made in close collaboration with Eric de Vroedt, artistic director of Het Nationale Theater, who was responsible for the play and final direction. Amini: “He is one of the ‘giants’ in our profession, someone I hold in very high esteem, it was fantastic to work with him. In this case he was very humble: “I am Saman’s assistant,” he introduced himself. At the same time I was doing a kind of internship with him; I learned so much from his direction and was able to work with the actors from his stable. It has really become my performance.”
Orkater with ‘The plantation of our ancestors’
,, The plantation of our ancestors is about the here and now and not just about what happened in past centuries,” says director Geert Lageveen (Drachten, 1961).
It is about what happens after Rutte’s comma, after the official apology about the history of slavery. Where are we actually now? During the making of the performance, the makers do not escape unscathed.”
The plantation of our ancestors is based on the podcast of the same name by Maartje Duin and Peggy Bouva. The award-winning podcast has been listened to more than one and a half million (!) times. Maartje Duin discovers that her ancestors were co-owners of the Tout Lui Faut sugar plantation in Suriname. She contacts the descendants of the enslaved and with one of them, Peggy Bouva, she reconstructs the story of the plantation.
In the performance, Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld and Malou Gorter take on the role of Maartje and Peggy. Bodil de la Parra made an adaptation for the theater in which, Lageveen emphasizes, it is not just about a historical reconstruction. “It’s about a white and a black woman who work together to bring this story to life. Maartje has reconstructed her family history to somewhere in the fourteenth century, Peggy knows almost nothing about her ancestors. In our performance we do not want to get stuck in feelings of guilt and victimhood, but we try to take a step towards healing together. ‘If you don’t know your roots, you can’t grow’ is the motto of the performance.”
‘A kind of ritual’
Both actresses start from their own perspective, their own emotions. “We keep coming across new things: Manoushka and Malou’s personal reflections on the text are woven through Maartje and Peggy’s story. I hope that the performance will work as a kind of ritual.”
Live music is important, as always at Orkater: “We also want to make the voices of the ancestors heard and this is mainly done through music. Percussionist Yariv Vroom provides the exciting and driving rhythm, and with the violin, traditionally the voice of the white middle class but now in the hands of Shauntell Baumgard, we touch the hearts of the spectators. The music will be leading, like the voice of the ancestors shouting: ‘Keep going!’ There is hope in it.”
The plantation of our ancestors , Orkater. Concept: Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld, based on the Prospektor/VPRO podcast. Director: Geert Lageveen, text: Bodil de la Parra, composition: Yariv Vroom, Shauntell Baumard, acting: Malou Gorter and Manoushka Zeegelaar Breeveld.
On display: 4/11, De Harmonie, Leeuwarden; 11/18, De Lawei, Drachten; 28/11, Stadsschouwburg, Groningen
‘The Smeekbede’ by Kobra Theater
‘Where is the pain? Can we ever feel the same?’ These are essential questions that arise in the conversation with Olivier Diepenhorst and Dionne Verwey about their new performance.
The Supplication the piece is called. Based on a remarkable letter, written two hundred years ago and only recently surfaced, writer Lianne Damen delved into the archives to tell the special story about Dédé, a woman born into slavery on a plantation in Suriname. The writer made a reconstruction of Dédé’s life based on the letter she wrote to her former master, the Utrecht lawyer Engelbert Keldermand.
Olivier Diepenhorst found the story super interesting but not immediately suitable for a theater staging. He immediately thought of Maarten van Hinte for an adaptation: “As a theater maker and writer, Maarten has a great affinity with the theme. Storylines from the past and present intertwine. To start with the story of Dédé, who wants to get her son released; then that of two people who meet by chance in the archive.”
The performance is almost choreographically designed: dance and music play an important role. “Music also makes us aware of history,” Diepenhorst explains. “CARISTA has composed electronic music. There is a line from the music that arose as a result of the transatlantic slave trade in the Caribbean to the house music of today.”
A woman at the center
It is important that – finally – a woman is central to a performance about the history of slavery. Dionne Verwey plays the woman who somewhat reluctantly searches for the past in the archive: “My character indicates right at the beginning that she doesn’t know if she wants to delve too deeply. At the end of the performance she dares to take a decisive step.”
For her, as a black woman and actress, it is a personal story: “The whole history, the history of slavery; Even though you were born and raised here, it is in your genes. Actually, now that I became a mother myself a year and a half ago, it has become increasingly clear, the connection to previous generations via the umbilical cord. That is very different with my white opponents. They can try to sympathize, but they can also easily get away from it. We can try to meet each other and acknowledge each other’s pain and suffering, that is a necessary first step.”
The Supplication , Kobra Theater Productions. Text: Maarten van Hinte, based on the book by Lianne Damen, director: Olivier Diepenhorst, acting: Dionne Verwey, Krisjan Schellingerhout, Francesca Pichel and Rohiet Tjon Poen Gie. Tour until December 15