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Het Spektakeltje

Just van Bommel & Emma van den Elshout / Frascati Producties
Wed 6 Dec ’23 - Tue 20 May ’25
How can we make sense of the bizarre systems we are constantly part of?
Wed 6 Dec ’23
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Tue 20 May ’25

Het Spektakeltje (The Mini Spectacle) is a text-based and visual production about the little things, the slightly bigger things, and the biggest things of all. About how everything in our universe moves with and around everything else, how it all hangs together and how we make sense of it all.

Now, somewhere on the street in Amsterdam; now, somewhere on a roof in a field in Tocantins; now, somewhere on a cargo ship on the North Sea (or maybe now already somewhere between Denmark and Sweden); now, in the International Space Station, somewhere above Mozambique – someone is wondering what it all means.

How aware are we of the bizarre systems we are constantly part of, which we contribute to while at the same time having very little say over them? Is there now – right now – someone somewhere on the other side of the world, hoping that they are not the only one paralysed by this thought?

 

Part of

Credits

concept, direction and text Just van Bommel and Emma van den Elshout performance Just van Bommel scenography and lighting design Loes Schakenbos costume design Ülkühan Akgül sound Jonathan Bonny artistic support BOG. dramaturgy Berthe Spoelstra makeup Patrijcia Kostelic campagin image Bas de Brouwer (photogtaphy) and Jan Fuite (hair and makeup) with thanks to Likeminds, Nine van Weert, Branko Popovic, Klaar Straatman, Batuhan Demir, Jip Robben, Kenji, Josh, webcam24, NASA en de Maas

Press

​"Human's existence is beautifully mapped out in big and small moments." Theaterkrant

About the makers

Emma van den Elshout (she/her) (1998) and Just van Bommel (he/she/they) (1999) graduated in directing and performance from Toneelacademie Maastricht institute of performative arts in 2022. Together, they like to create works about things that sometimes are so small or seem so self-evident, but that turn out to be much stranger, scarier or more beautiful. Their previous collaborations include Het Showtje (The Mini Show) , which was selected for Het Debuut 2022 by VIA RUDOLPHI.

Just van Bommel strives in their (always personal and highly formalistic) work to make space, with a light touch and humour, for those things in life that are not pleasant. For Frascati Producties, they previously created the production (with Diane Mahín) A divine aversion to DYING as part of Beginnings 2022. For Boslab Theaterfestival, Just also created the productions DREAM BABY SCREAM (2023) and THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (2022), together with Lieke van der Vegt and Laila Claessen. They have been associated as a maker with Frascati Producties since 2023.

Emma van den Elshout has worked as a directing assistant for Mart van Berckel and Liliane Brakema, among others. In 2022 she created a production for Winterkaravaan with Noah Janssen, and she will be creating a new production Staging Rooms: The Bedroom for the upcoming season with Feikes Huis. Emma is also a co-founder and artistic coordinator of ENTER FESTIVAL, the first edition of which will take place at Frascati and de Brakke Grond in 2023.

Credits

Just van Bommel

Maker

Frascati Producties