Oerol 2010

Day 1: Oerol opens with poetic manifesto Oerol opened its 29th edition with a ‘poetic statement on society’: The Terschelling Manifesto. Dutch poet laureate Ramsey Nasr presented his poem, which reflects on the position of the arts and culture in the contemporary political climate, to Gerdi Verbeet, president of the Dutch House of Representatives, during the opening ceremony. The festivities also saw last year’s musical discovery Colin Benders (Kyteman) return to the festival grounds, backed by his own band as well as members of De Staat, Convoi Exceptionel and Saelors.
Joop Mulder, Oerol’s creative director, explained the rationale behind the manifesto: “It is not a lamentation on the govornment’s investments in arts and culture, nor on politician’s perceived disinterest. Instead, it is a manifesto that draws our attention sharply to the meaning art has in our existence.”
The political inclination of the manifesto was reflected in Friday’s ‘reflective theme’: War and Innocence. Each in their own way, the four performances that are collected in this theme (‘Nacht’ by Thibaud Delpeut/Toneelschuur Producties; ‘Hominid’ by The Lunatics & Out of Hand Theatre; ‘Blue Remembered Hillds’ by De Roovers; and ‘Punch & Judy in Afghanistan’ by Stuffed Puppet Theatre) questioned the position of art and innocence in a war-torn world.
The opening ceremony was followed by the festival’s opening performance: ‘Master en Margarita’. This adaptation of the book by Russian writer Michail Boelgakov is a collaboration between theatre company Tryater and the Dutch band De Kift, regular Oerol guests.
Day 2: ‘Masters in Pieces’ The master and the student: Socrates and Plato; Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel; Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut. We all turn to those who preceded us for inspiration and guidance. In our postmodern age, referencing other people’s art, film, literature and music has even been elevated to an artform in its own right. This second festival day, focus lay on five performances that drew their inspiration from the global art repertoire: ‘Manon & Jean van Florette’ by Comp.Marius (adapted from works by Marcel Pagnol); ‘De helaasheid der dingen’ by Afslag Eindhoven (based on the novel by Dimitri Verhulst); ‘Ksztalt’ by Toneelgroep Oostpool (reflecting on the works of Witold Gombrowicz); ‘Rosto in Turansureishon’ by Joachim Robbrecht/Productiehuis Rotterdam (a satire of Sofia Coppola’s film Lost in Translation); and ‘Making Sense’ by SOIL, presented either as a daytime concert or a nighttime performance.
Oerol day 2 also saw the opening of the brand new ‘Natuurtheater de Nollekes’. The permanent theatre location, a Terschellinger version the amphitheatres of the ancient Greeks, was created in collaboration with Staatsbosbeheer. Built on a former dump site, ‘de Nollekes’ was created using materials left over from Staatsbosbeheer’s repairs on Terschelling’s dike system. This year, the location theatre hosts The Glasshouse/Kees Roorda’s ‘Eclips’.
Day 3: ‘Uitzicht op het universum’ Oerol’s third daily reflection ‘Uitzicht op het universum’ (‘A View on the Universe’) elucidates the mankind’s position and experience under the heavens. Far from the urban frenzy, these four performances confront the down-to-earth spectator with that of which he no longer dares to dream. We exchange the city’s orange haze for a glittering starry sky, under which we allow ourselves to be carried away and amazed. The dance pieces ’15 minute universe’ by David Middendorp/Korzo Producties and ‘MirrorMirror’ by Stalker Theatre Company accomplish this by mixing dazzling visual effects with subtle body-movements.
‘Eclips’ by The Glasshouse/Kees Roorde asks the question what would happen if the sun would die. The audience is transported in a apocalyptic dream threatening to become reality. Thank God we’re not alone: with the Cosmic Warrior as our guide and some lighting examples, we feel our way through the darkness to create our own splashing finale.
The absurdist theatre troupe WAK created a giant, slanted tent for their ‘RECHTNIET’, in which nothing is straight. “We hope the audience is a little askew when they leave, as well!”, actor Bart Strijbos explains. ‘RECHTNIET’ questions the relativity of so-called absolute values. “But you can se a bigger picture”, Strijbos continues. “At the moment, the whole world is lopsided!”
 
Day 4: ‘De Dream’ As always, Oerol 2010 offers ample opportunity for dreaming. The landscape is wide open, the audience is sympathetic and the horizon is endless. Still, dreaming isn’t as easy as it seems. Herded together in hysterical urban conglomerates, we limit our minds to pragmatism: “nothing out of the ordinary is weird enough.”
 In such a climate, any free spirit is easily dismissed as a stargazer and habit becomes dogma. All the more reason to dream, not just to sharpen our thinking beyond what we know, but also just for the hell of it. The five performances in the day’s reflection ‘De dream’ (no, that’s not English but Frysian, although the meaning is the same) explore the power of our imagination and the temptations of the surreal.
Day 5: ‘The collective memory’ What connects me to you, and the two of us with, say, an Eskimo or an ancient Roman? Our earliest ancestors connect us through a ‘collective memory’, the reflective theme for Oerol day 5: a set of shared memories that we keep alive, wilfully or by coincidence. Our ancestors looked up in wonder at the same sun, that dies every night and rises again the next day. Similarly universal and of all ages are feelings of jealousy, love, power and sadness that every human being struggles with – from caveman to modern day New Yorker. In our search for answers and explanations, we made up stories, fairytales, folk stories and legends with strong narratives and lasting characters.
The five performances that are part of ‘Het collectief geheugen’ all reflect upon the stories we share. Some take their cues from existing stories, like Theater Gnaffel does with the fairytale of Snow White in ‘Zwart als inkt’ (‘Black as ink’) and Het Volksoperahuis in cooperation with Teatro Luna Blou with the legend of the Flying Dutchman for ‘Morto i laman’. Others create their own legends: Deuten & De Goeij / Stip Theaterproducties tell the fable of Sheep and Wolf in ‘De schapelaar’ and Noordergraaf/Detmers compiled their piece ‘Tillefoan’ from the stories of children, teens and pensioners from the island. Finally, Toneelschap Beumer en Drost turned to that other collective experience for ‘Ganzenbord’: the family board game Snakes and Ladders.
Meanwhile, day five also saw festival centre the Westerkeyn turn southern for a day for the Brand Limburgday. The products and heritage of the southernmost Dutch province were front and center, both in the musical programma (with troubadour Gé Reinders and texmex partyband Dwayne & TexMexPlosion) and in the day’s menu’s at the festival eateries.
Day 6: ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ We all know it: the temptation to pluck the forbidden fruits, to disrupt everything around us and create a big anarchic party of self glorification. That urge to resist the things that are, to create a row, is only human. Of course we know the difference between right and wrong. Of course we behave ourselves, mostly. But we all carry our own Lucifer around inside us. The five performances in the day’s reflective theme ‘Synmpathy for the Devil’ reflect on devilish disruption, powerful women and the search for happiness.
The theme’s title connects directly to ‘Master en Margarita’: both the Rolling Stones song of that name and the piece by Tryater and De Kift are based on the novel by Russian dissident Mikhail Bulgakov. On the massive stage at Elvis Plak, the Frysian theatre company and Haarlemmer band present a variety show by the devil and his servants. Laura van Dolron’s ‘Welk stuk waar?’ (‘Which pieces where?’) is perhaps the biggest dirruptive experiment in the theatre programme: every night, she plays her monologue disguised as dialogue in a different setting and with a different opponent on her stage. Both ‘Lollipop’ (Miek Uittenhout/De Utrechtse Spelen) and ‘Fast Car’ (Renske van den Broek) present truly solo performances: ‘Lollipop’ puts a woman on show, while ‘Fast Car’ is a monologue by Fast Car Ray, a jazzdrummer with Gilles de la Tourette. Het NUT, finally, questions our search for happiness in ‘Celebration, de bestemming waar je ziel naar zocht’, the first fase in a project that will run into Oerol 2011 and 2012.