Theo d’Or
Mariana Aparicio
In the two most important roles that Mariana Aparicio (Leiden, 1983) played in recent years – both directed by Eline Arbo – the theme of motherhood was central. In classical drama Yerma she played the title role, a woman with an unfulfilled and unfulfillable desire to have children that turns into an obsession and the murder of her husband. And in her role The years (based on the book by Annie Ernaux), the performance for which she won the Theo d’Or on Sunday evening, she undergoes an illegal abortion as a young student and later encounters the mind-numbing banality of motherhood. In a short time she showed two completely different perspectives on a charged theme.
This is especially striking because until two years ago Aparicio was mainly known for her tragicomic talent. She distinguished herself by her excited acting style, with which she often portrayed characters with a yearning for recognition and love – which turned into nervousness or excessive good-naturedness. Like no other, Aparicio can play obsessively beautiful weather, losing himself in waterfalls of speech and a staccato body language that barely conceals a great sadness or emptiness. She showed that optimally We’re Here For Robbiethe 2018 family drama written by Maria Goos. As Linda, the new, younger wife of businessman Marius, she is committed to making the family meeting a success, no matter how many insults she receives from Marius, his children and his ex-wife gets to confuse.
That recognizable acting style led to typecasting: no matter how well Aparicio played the role of Linda, the feeling was that she was not challenged enough as an actress. That’s precisely why her leading roles were in Yerma and The Years such a relief. Particularly in the latter, she developed a much earthier playing style – in the role of the young adult protagonist there is none of the nervousness that had become her trademark. Sober and devoid of false sentiment, Aparicio takes us through her character’s struggle with motherhood – from the physical and mental pain of the abortion to the daily disappointments of the mother role that she ultimately takes on. Physical acting and text handling – which radiate soothing tranquility and emotional maturity – are in perfect balance.
Aparicio carried that mastery into her other great role this season. In Corolian, also from HNT, she secretly took on the hero role. In the role of tribune, she is an oasis of reason amid the scheming of the senate and the ravings of anti-hero Coriolanus. Her brilliance proves that she knows how to turn this smaller role into the center of a performance.
Louis d’Or
Eelco Smits
The man on stage starts talking in fits and starts. The discomfort radiates, both in his halting words and in his body language, which is crouched, as if the man expects an attack at any moment. As he gets better at speaking, it becomes clear where his caution comes from: he has been the victim of rape and attempted murder, and tries with all his might to make it understandable and therefore manageable for himself.
Eelco Smits (Tilburg, 1977) plays in History Of Violence (director: Abdel Daoudi) Édouard Louis, the French writer of the autobiographical novel of the same name, in which he describes the aftermath of the violent act and his attempts to look at it with nuance and compassion. It is a role full of contradictions: in order not to be reduced to a victim himself, Louis refuses to reduce the perpetrator to a perpetrator.
It’s hard to imagine an actor who could have played this role better than Smits. His great strength as a player is the way he combines great intelligence and equally great vulnerability. When you see Smits on stage, you get a direct look at an emotional core of a character – even if that character still tries to hide that vulnerability or keep it at bay in his words. He showed this early in his breakthrough role as Prior Walter, dying of AIDS, in Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of Angels In America (2008). Yet he hardly got the opportunity to play interesting roles at Toneelgroep Amsterdam (now ITA), with which he was associated for fourteen years.
When he left there in 2019, it opened up new opportunities. In 2020, Smits created a performance together with Minou Bosua about their unconventional parenthood, Not the fathers, where he spoke candidly about his role as a sperm donor and the unexpected fatherhood that resulted. He talks with heartbreaking honesty about his own struggle with his homosexuality.
Smits’ unparalleled unadornedness and continuous self-questioning made him the ideal protagonist History Of Violence. The play offers an important addition to the novel through Smits’ acting: through his physical play and his textual treatment, the underlying injury is constantly present, and Louis’ socio-political analysis of his rapist is even more exposed as a defense mechanism.
From this season onwards, Smits will return to ITA – it is hoped that this incomparable actor will never again have to spend seven years on the ‘reserve bench’.