Young theatre makers

Almost all the talented theatre makers in their forties run their own companies, such as Dood Paard, ’t Barre Land and Mugmetdegoudentand. Dogtroep is the pioneer of theatre on location in the Netherlands. This group has now been disbanded, but its legacy lives on in other companies. During recent years the summer festival circuit has proved a fertile breeding ground where a new generation of young theatre makers such as Lotte van den Berg, Jetse Batelaan, Boukje Schweigman and Dries Verhoeven have plenty of scope for exploring new forms of theatre. In a sense, they are continuing the total-experience theatre of Hollandia, but with a perceptual ability and special intimacy that is all their own. Schweigman, who originally studied mime, makes seemingly simple movement theatre of unexpected profundity. With her permanent designer Theun Mosk, she creates intimate spaces in which players and audience can seek sincere encounters. Dries Verhoeven, who started out as a scenographer, makes architectural installation productions in which the spectator is craftily given the leading role, with You are here as the high point to date. For her production Gerucht (Rumour), Lotte van den Berg, the most radical director of her generation, built a closed box in which her audience could study a city square, unobserved. All of these theatre makers in their early thirties see observation itself as the main subject of their work.

In the area of mime and object theatre, Hotel Modern, Ulrike Quade, Duda Paiva and Stuffed Puppet have produced high-quality work for many years and continually perform outside the Netherlands, while Dutch youth theatre is famed for its rebellious perspective.