A Rozentheater blog PREVIEW...
Translating performance and other things in Amsterdam
About the blog:
Rozentheater has enlisted a diverse bunch of bloggers to comment on what's happening in Amsterdam. The blog will include reviews, columns, reflections on artistic processes, impressions of ambience around town, and quotidian commentaries. I will be the only contributor writing in English and much of my posts will deal with what I understand in absence of language (Nederlands)... The Rozentheater blog goes live in April.
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Words
I’ve been to 9 performances over the past month and a half and in at least 4 of them one of the only words I understood was ‘MichaelJackson’. I’m sure that the dearly departed was not a key element of any of these shows but it is funny how we’ll tune into and remember what we know...my other most notable verbal observation being ‘Niet Normaal’ (thanks to the Niet Normaal project, I’ve got this vocabulary committed to memory and am now aware of how often ‘Dit is niet normaal’ is exclaimed emphatically between friends in the street). A week ago at Sanne Vogel’s 'Late Night Ideals' I expressed pride at understanding what was deemed false (‘verkeerd’), thanks to my ritual of drinking lattés (‘koffee verkeerd’-- literally false coffee).
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Het feest van het grote GELD at Stadsschouwburg, 19th February 2010
Inspired by Toneelgroep’s production of Goldoni’s Zomertrilogie, Toneelgroep JR’s Het feest van het grote GELD -- ‘The big MONEY party’ -- was performed by 30 students from 5 Amsterdam high schools. Full of adolescent energy, but with no resemblance to a ‘high school production’ the show was performed by slick but earnest teenagers: as while they played personas in the action, they also played themselves--or rather they embodied this time in their lives with heartfelt gutsy bravado. Their energy was infectious--even for a non Dutch speaker who had no clue what they were saying...
When I entered the space (like an exclusive modern bar set up in air-hanger), I sat in bleacher-like audience space, next to a boy dedicated to a video game on his ipod. He and his mother had an argument about it and the device was torn from him just as the (official) performers entered the scene. 10 minutes later, the boy’s body language had completely changed. He was leaning forward in his chair closely following the visual action; he was tapping his feet to the beats of the sound system...
In some ways, the energy of Het feest van het grote GELD reminded me of Ontroerend Goed’s Once and for all we’re going to tell you who we are so shut-up and listen (though unlike Once and for all..., Het feest... is not explicitly about being a teenager). It was not quite as tight a production, but without the predictable polish of a show that has been touring for years in the international circuit, Het feest van het grote GELD demonstrated greater teenage authenticity despite the fact that this show was about ‘grown-up‘ behaviour. I was reminded too of another unforgettable production, which also sent currents of energy through the audience’s collective body: SHUNT’s Money. Like Het feest... Money is also inspired by a period text (Zola’s L’Argent) about arbitrary and irresponsible relationships with money. But the more visceral reason I was reminded of SHUNT’s latest work was for aesthetic reasons: the constant surprises for all the senses in Het feest... and staying on the right side of the fine line between gimmicky and original.
I spoke with a few of the teens after the show and embarrassed myself by taking some guesses at what some of the Dutch meant...One of the charming young men assured me that I had understood the most important language of the show, which had been repeated several times in English. It was a monologue about how to get rich: “...first decide you want to be rich...imagine it every night...” and also a chant turned dance beats: “fame, glamour, money, success...” The show made consumerism and material fortune repulsive but also enticing, as somehow we wanted to be up there on stage, decked out, drinking champagne and conforming in dance with the mob. And isn’t that’s the truth about fame, glamour, money and success? Visibly grotesque or not, they dare us to reject the impulse?
Text and images by Erin Brubacher
Toneelgroep JR’s Het feest van het grote GELD
Referenced:
SHUNT’s Money
Ontroerend Goed’s Once and for all we’re going to tell you who we are so shut-up and listen
