In a packed Hague Theater, Maaike Dirkje Hop took full advantage on Saturday evening during the final of the Cameretten Festival. Both jury and audience chose her as the winner of the evening, which was beautifully combined by comedian Daan van der Hoeven.
Dirkje Hop presented an energetic and theatrical act in which modern ego-trips were comically mocked. She acted funny, a rather self-righteous type, very concerned with her own victimhood. The starting point was a story about a ‘tough’ childhood. Never got to read aloud at school, even though she really had the best reading voice. That kind of work. Retrospectively, she saw with clarity the master’s motive: a way to keep the female voice out of the public debate.
In her performance, Dirkje Hop very visually explains her plans for processing her childhood traumas through a musical: ‘Recognition, the musical’. An earlier incident involving the song ‘Farmer, what do you say about my chickens’ suddenly appears in her musical to be ‘symbolic of the simplification and misrecognition of Dutch farmers’. After all, the phrase ‘or you don’t like the color’ is (‘of course’) an indictment by the writer on Dutch agricultural policy since the 1970s. Later: “It’s nice how my work apparently raises universal questions, making it apparently emblematic of an entire genre of contemporary narcissistic stage work. Yes, you really pick up on that very nicely!”
Maaike Dirkje Hop during the final of Cameretten.
Photo Camerets
Selflessness
Dirkje Hop remains in her role as a slightly irritating and far too arrogant truth-preacher. She humorously pokes fun at the rampant navel-gazing, which is disguised as selflessness. Someone who dramatically takes the stage to address the situation of the Uyghurs: is he taking the problems of the Uyghurs seriously, or is he mainly taking himself?
Although Dirkje convinced Hop, it would not have been unjustified if she had shared the prizes with finalist Jorn van Dam. He presented himself as a modest boy with a fine sense of the tragicomic. His story about growing up on welfare in the village of Midwoud left me wanting more. With carefully chosen words, he always said just enough to spark the imagination (and laughter). Of course, he didn’t go on winter sports in the past. “Do you know what we did in the winter? Shivering.”
The third finalist, Jannes Laven, also showed potential. His performance about different forms of masculinity ended with a beautiful song: “(…) You only know who you really are when you put on a dress as a man.” Laven showed himself to be an interesting stage personality, but his performance was still a bit too flat to continuously hold attention.
Unlike last year, this time the jury decided to keep the Personality Prize, which can be optionally awarded to a losing finalist. It only makes the conditions for granting it even more shrouded in mystery.
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