Category: Archive

Performing for the first time in English in 2003, homerostheater chose an early work by the future Nobel prizewinner Harold Pinter.

Between ourselves, man to man, you’re not by any chance taking the old wee-wee out of me, are you?

Roote, The Hothouse

Pinter is considered one of the premier representatives of modern English theater. Although he was strongly influenced by absurdism (most notably Beckett) he does have a style of his own. Where absurdism revolves around the existential fears of humanity on an abstract level, Pinter concerns himself more with every day situations in which the fear suddenly becomes the major driving force. He is mostly interested in how people intimidate each other and how they exert power over one another. That the integrity of the individual takes a back seat in these situations is something he illustrates with extreme clarity.

The Hothouse (1958) is one of Pinter’s earlier works, and certainly by any understanding a very humorous piece.
The play is set in an institution known only as the rest house, whose nature is subject to interpretation, during Christmas. Long, hollow sounding hallways. Snow… The heating set to full blast and no one seems to be able to turn it down.
Roote, the director, is confronted by the death of a patient and another patient is in labor. In his search to find the guilty parties the boss finds his position of authority slipping away like sand through his fingers. Panic ensues, even bureaucrats are wildlings when push comes to shove.

Cast

Steve Searcy as Mutter Roote
Niels Klok as Gibbs
Ruud van der Zalm as Lamb
Manon Waterreus as Miss Cutts
Thomas Gerkrath as Lush
Jaap Parqui as Tubb
Victorija Ceginskas as Lobb

Performed in: The Hague, Leiden, Utrecht, Groningen, and Dordrecht.

A show performed half in Dutch and half in old Greek. Unfortunately there is no photographic material available.

Brecht’s classic play, performed in German, with decor by Ben Stolk, and music composed by Floris van Bergeijk. Performed in theaters throughout the Netherlands, and with great success at a number of schools.

“Was eine Aufführung von ‘Mutter Courage’ hauptsächlich zeigen sollte: Daß die großen Geschäfte in den Kriegen nicht von den kleinen Leuten gemacht werden. Daß der Krieg, der eine Fortführung der Geschäfte mit anderen Mitteln ist, die menschlichen Tugenden tödlich macht, auch für ihre Besitzer. Daß er darum bekämpft werden muß”

Bertold Brecht

Brecht wrote his anti-war piece Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder in 1939 in Denmark, after fleeing there from the nazi-regime. He criticized the attitude of the Scandinavian countries, who stood to profit a great deal from the iron trade with Germany, and in doing so were digging their own grave. The clever Mutter Courage, trading as she follows armies and profiting off war, loses her children one by one to that same war. The morality of the story, one that is very clear today, was mostly missed by the premiere-audience in Zürich: Instead of leaving the theater in dismay, shaking their heads at the stupidity and misplaced mother love, it seemed that the people saw in Mutter Courage a heroine.

Cast

Hennie Spronk as Mutter Courage
Coca Román van Dongen as Kattrin
Jacob van Mourik as Eilif
Armin de Kooning as Schweizerkas and Der Bauer
Jaap Parqui as Feldwebel, Feldhauptmann, Der mit der Binde, and Fähnrich
Willemijn Ages as Weberin, Schreiberin and Die Bäuerin
Corné Versteegh as Koch
Coen van Onselen as Feldprediger
Anke Teunis as Yvette Pottier
Rob de Vries as Obrist
Manon Waterneus as Soldat

Floris van Bergeijk composition and Piano
Ester Kurtz Hobo and Saxophone
Jaap Parqui Accordeon

Les Misanthrope by Moliére was performed in the original French language. Unfortunately there is no photographic material available from this show.