Diary

This was the first time I got to see a performance in the new 'small hall' in the Eindhoven City Theatre, together with Julia. We had visited this hall before in a guided tour when it was still being built, but now it is fully operational. Tonight De theatercompagnie played "Twelfth-Night" by William Shakespeare, directed by Theu Boermans.

I didn't have time for dinner. If I want to visit a theatre play, I have to go straight from work to the theatre. But one should be able to go out once in a while, right? So I took some extra sandwiches in my lunch bag and that was all I could do about it.

But I am not sorry I did this: We saw a beautiful performance.

Twelfth-Night starts with a shipwreck. The twins Viola and Sebastian survive the disaster but they loose sight of each other. They both think their sibling is dead. These teenagers, roughly separated from everything that used to be part of the world as they knew it, land in un unfamiliar country: Illyria.

Welcome to Illyria, a contemporary paradise, where the inhabitants live on their unfulfilled desires. This is where Olivia and Orsino rule, both are owners of very successful businesses and both are suffering from a heavy 'quarter life crisis'. Orsino, deadly in love with Olivia, endulges in love songs to give way to his feelings. But he isn't quite sure whether he is in love with Olivia, with her company or with love itself. Olivia doesn't know how to choose between her independence, submission to her feelings or a take-over of her company.
So for the time being she has decided to do nothing at all. She send out an announcement that she will be in mourning for her dead brother for the next seven years.

Viola is trying to find out who she really is. She decides to disguise as her twin brother Sebastian for safety and is hired by Orsino. When Orsino tells her about his unlucky love she falls in love with him. But Orsino sends the disguised Viola to Olivia time and time again as a 'postillion d'amour'. The result is a disaster. Olivia falls in love with this harmless but 'handsome young man'.

A woman in men's clothing provides Shakespeare with plenty of opportunity for mistaken identities and hilarious misunderstandings. This play is one of his masterpieces and in contrast with most of his plays it is a comedy.

Theu Boermans did a lot of re-writing to fit the play into modern times, but that didn't reduce the power of the original play by Shakespeare. And it may have been due to his directing or to the professionally of the actors or both, but we saw a lot of excellent acting.
I had worried a little about the part of "Top" ("Sir Toby Belch" in the original play): It was played by a famous Dutch talkshow host. I feared I would feel all evening as if I was watching one of his uninteresting TV-shows, but that wasn't the case at all: He was "Top" all over!

The scene on stage looked like a modern office: There were several cubicles, each separated from the rest with movable, Plexiglas walls. Most of the time it was used as an office indeed: Olivia's office on the left and Orsino's office on the right.

Olivia's dog was a lovely idea: A remote controlled Aibo...

Cast:
Viola: Carice van Houten
Sebastian: Tijn Docter
Orsino: Frank Lammers
Olivia: Saskia Temmink
Top ("Sir Toby Belch"): Paul de Leeuw
Bum ("Sir Andrew Aguecheek"): Mike Reus
Maria: Anneke Blok
Clown: Myranda Jongeling
Malvolio: Jappe Claes
Antonio: Abel Nienhuis
Captain: Matteo van der Grijn / Ferdi Stofmeel
Priest: Yora Rienstra
Guard: Matteo van der Grijn
Guard: Ferdi Stofmeel
Orsino's staff: Abel Nienhuis, Yora Rienstra, Ferdi Stofmeel
Olivia's staff: Margreet Boersbroek, Matteo van der Grijn, Jessica Zeylmaker
Musician: Rob van Zandvoort


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