Theater Na de Dam

Line of Escape

Posted 6 January 2025 by Maite

In better times you make way to freedom, in less fortunate times you cut the way for survival. In any case, it is worth learning and walking your line.

For this performance our partners researched Budapest memories of World War II with 10 young people through the personal memories of 5 storytellers. In the framework of the site-specific performance entitled ‘Line of Escape’, they invite the audience to a site-specific theatrical memory interpretation in the neighbourhood of Pozsonyi Road, the area of the former ‘international ghetto’.

Clover Fields

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

The year 2025; 80 years since the end of the war. The young generation asks: what does it mean for us? Witnesses are remembering, young artists are listening and creating. What is created when the past meets its future? Come and explore the boundaries of memory, art and identity.

It Was Somehow, It Will Be Somehow

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

Italians are loud and passionate, Germans are cold and precise, Brits are conservative and snobbish – and Slovaks are hospitable and…? Do we have unjustified prejudices about our own history, or is every stereotype a reflection of some deeper truth? A group of young actors experiments, performs, and seeks to uncover the essence of Slovak identity. Does it have roots in the past, or are we continuously creating it here and now?

This performance looks at these questions with the theatre group Štyria z paiteho ročníka (meaning Four from the Fifth Year). The group formed in a simple yet meaningful way: they graduated last year and decided to continue their studies in musical and dramatic arts at the conservatory this year. During their search for a theme, form, and content for the upcoming school year, this topic unexpectedly presented itself. Yet, they don’t believe in coincidences.

I STAND STILL and (get) move(d)

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

In this performance the ACADEMY is looking at stories of women and girls during the Second World War who were imprisoned in Ravensbrück, the largest women’s concentration camp in Germany. Inspired by this search, they will create a performance for January 27. Based on a trip to Ravensbrück, workshops, and encounters that they hosted in November 2024, the performance I STAND STILL and (get) move(d) will combine dance, literature, visual art, and performing art.

Darkened

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

Mørklagt is a theatrical adaptation of 5 witnesses’ accounts from the war and the occupation in Denmark. Visualised reflections on the dilemmas of war, big and small. Surrender or fight. Standing up for your values or hiding. Resist, take up arms or wait silently in the dark.

‘HOPE’ HOTEL

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

The Carceri Nuove (New Prisons) in Turin were occupied by the Germans after 8 September 1943, along with other nerve centres in the city. From the ‘German wing’, which housed political prisoners, partisans, Jews and often civilians arrested in reprisal, people left to face two fates: execution or deportation. In the block where Le Nuove Prison stands, until 1943 there was a small hotel: the Albergo Speranza, destroyed during the bombing.

Imagine one winter night a traveller walking in the fog holding a note with the address of the Albergo…. Who gave it to him? What will he find?

Gathering the stories of that time, we asked ourselves what remains when even Hope is bombed out, and we went in search of the ‘bright spots’ moments, experiences and encounters that shine and allow one to shine even when everything around is dark.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Today, Tomorrow, The Day After Tomorrow

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

During the last two months, a group of young people with the facilitation of trainers from STOP-KLATKA met elderly people, survivors from the Second World War, and their relatives. In the stories, youngsters searched for their “living questions”. What are the situations in the past that can happen nowadays as well? Where do we see oppression in our life? What is our responsibility in those situations?

Theatre of Memory

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

Inspiriert von Gesprächen mit älteren Einwohnern ihrer Stadt erarbeitet die Kindergruppe des Brama-Theaters eine Performance über den Zweiten Weltkrieg, die Umsiedlung der polnischen Bevölkerung nach Pommern und die Kindheit im Nachkriegs-Goleniów.

Behind The Façade

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

Behind The Façade is a performance that tells the stories of the people who stayed at Camp Westerbork during World War II. From 1942 to 1945, the transit camp on the Drentse heath was the departure point for more than 107,000 Jews, Sinti and Roma who were deported from here to death camps in the East. Only 5,000 were able to recount this.

Camp Westerbork was special because of the ‘make-believe reality’ that was created there; although the camp’s residents appeared to be able to continue a normal life in some respects, life there was also marked by fear and the uncertainty of the approaching transport. Amid this smoke screen, music sounded. Behind The Façade reflects on this duality and revives some of the stories of Westerbork.

Following the previous Theatre after Dam performances, It’s Our Boys and Free and Fixed, this year Garage TDI’s pre-training department is working with a larger group of young actors and in collaboration with the Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO) as part of Theatre of Remembrance. The performance is the result of an intensive research process, during which the makers carefully studied the stories of the camp residents together with the players. This collaboration between young theatre makers and professional musicians brings some of the stories of the victims and the events in the camp to life on the historic site itself.

Like Underwater

Posted 2 December 2024 by Maite

What thought or question starts the feeling that something is wrong? At what moment do you turn this thought into action? In this performance, we will explore what resistance is, how small it can stay, or how big it can grow, and what happens when you only watch?

They will talk to to survivors about Amsterdam women who were part of the resistance during the Second World War. What kind of community and combined forces were used to keep a child safe at this time? This performance looks at the position of women during that time; what their limitations were, and also how women were able to take advantage of the fact that they were often underestimated because of their gender.

Through this performance the National Holocaust Museum will explore these topics and ask; What courage or fear may lie within ourselves to feel when something is not right and to say or do something when necessary?