Just van Bommel
Maker
Just van Bommel (Groningen, 1999) graduated as a performer in 2022 from Toneelacademie Maastricht institute of performative arts. In their productions, they mix humour with tragedy, broaching the trivial and the commonplace to create space for existential and universal questions. Light, personal, at times melodramatic and always bursting with self-irony, meaning that heavy topics may feel a little less oppressive.
Just van Bommel is inspired in their performances by irritation about and fascination with established norms. Significant themes for them are the fear of death and awkwardness in love.
Following their graduation, they created the production The Midnight Special for Boslab Theaterfestival 2022 in collaboration with Laila Claessen and Lieke van der Vegt. The graduation production 't Showtje, a co-creation with Emma van den Elshout, was chosen by Via Rudolphi as one of three shows for Het Debuut 2022 and is currently on a nationwide tour of the Netherlands.
Just presented their research piece A divine aversion to dying, a collaboration with Diane Mahin, at Beginnings (Frascati Producties, 2022). This work zooms in on the finite nature of our lives and our inability to imagine what it’s like not to exist.
In the fall of 2023, Just, together with Emma van den Elshout, created Het Spektakeltje at Frascati Producties: a kaleidoscopic performance about how everything in our universe moves with and around each other, how it intertwines, and how we can give it meaning. The performance premiered on December 8 2023. The performance premiered on December 8, 2023, and will tour five other cities during the 2024-2025 season.
Press
"In Het Spektakeltje, it's as if you're racing through a galaxy. [...] The performance makes you feel humble and, at the same time, connected to everything you cannot comprehend"
★★★★ de Volkskrant
"In both grand and small moments, the existence of humanity is beautifully charted."
Productions
