DutchCulture | Buitengaats: Hotel Modern

Hotel Modern blends visual art, puppetry, music, film and performance in expressive theatre productions. The group’s visual language is rich and playful. Scale models play an important role in their work, allowing Hotel Modern to view the world literally from a macro perspective.

De Grote Oorlog (The Great War) depicts the First World War as seen through the eyes of the soldiers. Hotel Modern reconstructs the Battle of the Western Front in front of audiences on a miniature film set that uses soil, parsley and rusty nails as trenches, trees and bombs and with sound effects from a Foley artist providing a gritty, intimate realism to the live soundtrack: a rap on the table sounded like a hand grenade exploding, the striking of a match became mustard gas being released. Intertwined are the poignant words from the Great War: the very personal letters written by soldiers to their loved ones back home.

De Grote Oorlog premiered in 2001 and was praised by audience and press. In this Remembrance year, the piece was played across Europe and is now making a final tour in France.

Hotel Modern website

For more cultural activities from Netherlands, visit DutchCulture | Buitengaats (Offhore). DutchCulture | Buitengaats (Buitengaats = Offshore) provides a current overview of Dutch cultural activities abroad and is updated on a weekly basis.