Last year our king came to Drenthe for the theater performance East Side Story. It told the story of the arrival of Moluccan KNIL soldiers and their families in Drenthe, among other places, more than seventy years ago. Willem-Alexander visited two of the three places where the theater took place: the location at the former Schattenberg camp (the site of the Camp Westerbork Remembrance Center) and the one at the De Vogelpoel campsite in Hooghalen.
Project leader Miranda Bolhuis of East Side Story walked around with the king for an hour and is impressed by the monarch’s thorough preparation. “He was really interested and knowledgeable,” she says. “I think it is very important that he was there, honorably, a kind of recognition for what we did, we were seen. It was also nice for the Moluccan community.”
“The play naturally received a lot of media attention,” she continues, “but putting the play on the map was not really important to us, because the performance is no longer being performed. It is much more important that the story remains alive and a visit from the king is of course good for that.”
Bolhuis also experienced our king as a very nice man. “It was actually very nice, he knew a lot, was sincere and asked a lot of questions, but we didn’t get to hear his own opinion. He did laugh and clap, so I think he enjoyed it too.”
Text continues after photo