THE BIENNALE OF VENICE HAS AWARDED JETSE BATELAAN A SILVER LION
“Creator of innovative children’s theatre and not only”
The board: “Just over forty years old, director Jetse Batelaan has become established on the international scene as a singular and innovative artist, with a strong and recognizable highly personal approach to theatre. Presenting works of powerful visual impact, Batelaan reinterprets contemporary myths, creating a kind of magic on the stage that seduces even the most sceptical of spectators. Thanks to his masterful use of theatrical conventions, the Dutch director, who chooses to address his works primarily to audiences of adolescents and children, succeeds in involving people of all ages, a characteristic that is intrinsic to great popular theatre.
With Batelaan, theatre for children, which is often mistakenly considered to be second-class or in a category below ‘official’ theatre, reclaims the importance it deserves and which has been acknowledged in the past, as the history of the Biennale Theatre demonstrates“.
(.....) A SHOW THAT DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ITS OWN VAGUE TITLE
Last January 2019 in Frankfurt, Jetse Batelaan delivered (…..) A show that doesn’t give a shit about its own vague title for 12 and up, coproduced by Artemis, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm & the Ruhrtriennale. In April the Dutch premiere took place. However extremely vague this performance was really warmly welcomed by press and crowds, in Germany and The Netherlands.
“Jetse Batelaan uses ingenious directing to reveal a world next to reality. The performance skilfully switches back and forth between witty absurdism and existential nightmare.” NRC Handelsblad****
“Parents, teachers and supervisors of all kinds, take all your children with you and prepare them for life by a visit to (…..).” Theaterkrant
“Jetse Batelaan turns the theatrical experience of teenagers upside down.” de Volkskrant*****
Ruhrtriennale, Essen 18-28 september 2019
On tour till January 30th
PREMIERE: PARTY DIALOGUES
Do you ever feel homesick or do you long back to the time when you were still to become somebody? Don’t you worry. Our occasional shamans wander you right back to your past. Back to that eternal feeling, of tireless power and lucid naivety. After working with children for Hello Atmosphere (2017), Liesbet Swings now will have teenagers address us-adults.
Oerol Festival Terschelling, 15 (premiere) till 22 June 2019
More shows coming up in August.
ART PROJECT - LOVE
In Den Bosch, two primary schools – a stone’s throw from each other – were searching for the answer to the question: “What would we look like if the whole school would be one person?” All classes involved the character slowly took shape. That’s it. He is a cheerful boy with four legs and a roof on top. But there is no one but him. Hello! Is anyone there?!
Through a contact ad in the local door-to-door magazine, our boy detects someone just like him. Wow. 10 April 2019 at Parade Den Bosch 11 am, everything was set in motion to make sure the meeting would go smoothly.
I LIKE SCHOOL AND SCHOOL LIKES ME
Together with Design Museum Den Bosch we have realized a major secret art project I Like School and School Likes Me. Between April 2017 and January 2019, ten different artists at nine secondary schools stayed over for three days and three nights. I like school and school likes me is a contemporary re-enactment of the performance I like America and America likes me by Joseph Beuys.
Liesbet Swings sensed a striking metaphor for the tense relationship between art and education. Filmmaker Melanie Pardoel created a documentary of every performance.
Exhibition at Design Museum in Den Bosch (until 12 May)
Teaser
FLASH BACK
Another re-enactment of the Show in which hopefully nothing happens by Unicorn Theatre was nominated for an OFFIE for the best production for 8 and up. The Off West End Awards “celebrate the work of independent London theatres”. The winner will be announced in the spring of 2020. It is the second Artemis production to compete, after The man who knows it all in 2017. Also the British press liked the nothing a lot.
A child-centric theatrical masterpiece that feels like Pinter meeting pantomime for the Pixar audience. LondonWestEnd.com*****
“Metatheatrical two-hander that’s like Beckett for kids, only with better gags. If there’s a play for Britain circa March 2019, this is it.” The Stage *****
“The kids in the audience howled in delight.” Timeout.com***
The book that almost wasn't written
In three conversations, theatre maker Jetse Batelaan and Hester van Hasselt talk about embarrassment, about hierarchy and eureka. About how boring theatre can be, about virtuoso actors seldom mentioned in a review, about language that stumbles, about rooms full of children who suddenly all become part of what happens on stage. About panic and trust, about compromise and persistence.