English
The Promised Feast:
The Promised Feast is a series of six performances by the dutch/Israeli theatre maker Ilay den Boer. In this series Ilay takes a close look at himself, his family and with that the state of Israel and the Jewish history. By researching this he attempts to name the unnameable of a war, the incredible complexity of the Jewish history, and to expose and unravel the Jewish identity. The sense of responsibility in this world of the human race and therefore of the audience will be questioned.
Performances:
Yet the performances are touring in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switserland, Bosnia and Liechtenstein.
Click here for the tour list.
In the first performance Bon Appetit the public take a seat at the Bar mitzvah meal by Ilay den Boer and his mother. Attempt to find the meaning of being Jewish in the here and the now together with his mother, himself, twenty other guests and a vast history. The performance premiered in 2008 and got selected by the Belgium jury of Het Theaterfestival 2009, a festival that portrays the ten best performances of the Dutch and Belgium past theatre season. And in 2010 Ilay den Boer took the performance abroad. The performance got excellent reviews in The Netherlands and abroad. Click here for pictures, movies and music .
In the second performance Whining and Shooting Ilay together with his audience steps in the bus where his grandmother fled with, from Lithuanian to Israel during The Second World War. By looking at the historical context together with the audience, Ilay attempts to say something sensible about Israel’s nonsensical war. A performance that shows how the Holocaust became the justification for the Jewish war. This performance premiered in 2009 and will tour during the summer of 2010. It can be seen at several summer festivals in The Netherlands and Belgium. The performance got excellent reviews in The Netherlands. Click here for pictures, movies and music.
In the third performance This is my dad Ilay performces together with his father. Ilay questions his father about the choices he made in his life. Especially the choices Ilay never understood. The performance premiered in 2010 and got selected for Het Theaterfestival Nederland 2010 a festival that portrays the ten best performances of the Dutch and Belgium past theatre season. This is my dad also got selected for Blind Date – nieuwe theatermakers on tour, a prize for Dutch young directors / theatre makers and will tour in 2011 in several theatres in The Netherlands and Belgium. This is my dad will also perform abroad in 2010 and 2011. By the national Dutch paper De Volkskrant the performance was chosen in there top 10 best performances in The Netherlands as 5th. Another national Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad made a top 5 best performances in The Netherlands and the performance ended as 3rd. The performance got excellent reviews in The Netherlands and abroad. Click here for pictures, movies and music.
In the fourth performance Figure it out yourself (a children’s play) Ilay and his grandfather used to dream about building a house together with all the other children in the world. A safe home for every child (to live in). Just imagine, there is one house for all the Dutch people to live in and you get to design it. A house for everybody to be themselves in, without getting in each others way and (where) everybody is happy. His grandfather from Israel worked as a child psychologist. That’s someone who talks with children, plays with them, makes drawings or music with them and who asks children how they see the world. In a country where there is lots of fighting you need such a house even more. The grandfather of Ilay never really have had the time to built that home. But Ilay would still like to do it. That’s why I would like to do it now with you.
Part V will premier in July 2012 and part VI in 2013
Each part has his own specific character. Bon Appetit is a dish with the public, Whining and Shooting is a trip on location in a bus with the public, in This is my dad the public sits ‘just normal’ in a theatre. Part IV will be a performance for children, part V a big location project and part VI will be a installation performance.
Awards:
-Ilay den Boer won with his performance This is my dad the BNG Nieuwe theatermakers prijs 2011 of 45.000 euro. The bigest award for young directers in The Netherlands.
-Also the Blind Date public Award 2011 was that year for Ilay den Boer’s This is my dad
-Ilay den Boer won the Charlotte Kohler Prijs 2011. A award for young talent distributed every two years by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. Allied to the award Ilay den Boer gets 20.000 euro’s.
-This is my dad got selected for Het Theaterfestival Nederland 2010 a festival that portrays the ten best performances of the Dutch and Belgium past theatre season.
-This is my dad also got selected for Blind Date – nieuwe theatermakers on tour, a prize for Dutch young directors / theatre makers.
-By the national Dutch paper De Volkskrant the performance has been chosen in there top 10 best performances in The Netherlands in the season 2009/2010 as 5th.
-Another national Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad made a top 5 best performances in The Netherlands in the year 2010 and the performance ended as 3rd.
-Bon Appetit got selected by the Belgium jury of Het Theaterfestival 2009, a festival that portrays the ten best performances of the Dutch and Belgium past theatre season.
-Ilay den Boer won with his performance Janken en Schieten the Audience Award 2011 of Theaterfestival Karavaan.
-Ilay den Boer have been chosen in december 2010 by the editors of Time Out Amsterdam as one of the city’s 50 most important movers and shakers in culture and the arts.
Non Dutch reviews and interviews:
(Spanish and English) Look here to a program on RTVE (Spanish national tv) for a coverage about Dit is mijn vader in Paris. (It starts at 17:05 min)
(German) Listen here to a interview on the Swiss radio DRS 2.
(German) Review Stefan Grund – Die Welt (DE) – Click here
“So wird dieser Abend zu einem vielschichtigen, ernüchternden Theaterabend über Grenzen auf Landkarten und der Selbstfindung, über Grenzen von Theaterrealismus, persönlicher Verantwortung und des Geschichtsbewusstseins.”
(English) Review Clare Shine – Financial Times (GB) – Click here
“It starts interactively, an artfully casual mix of the conversational and the confessional, but ends deadly serious, teetering between hatred and tenderness.”
(English) Review Michael Coveney – www.whatsonstage.com (GB) – Click here
“This Is My Father is an unusual, unsettling and deeply moving play”
(French) Review Fabienne Arvers – Les Inrocks (FR) – Click here
“Ceci est mon père: bluffant”
(German) Article in Theater Der Zeit (DE) by Jörg Vorhaben – Click here
“Der niederländische Performer Ilay den Boer spürt anhand seiner Familiengeschichte seinem Geburtsland Israels nach.”
(French) Review Sabine Larivière – Un Fauteuil pour l’orchestra (FR) – Click hier
“A laisser couler ses larmes et faire le tour du périph…”
(French) Review Sandrine Bendavid – CRIF – Click here
“Une magnifique réalisation, doublée d’une mise en scène millimétrée et de deux interprétations admirables d’honnêteté et de profondeur.”
(German) Review Michaela Preiner – European Cultural news (DE) – Click here
“Ilay und Gert den Boer verkörperten in diesem Moment jedoch nicht nur den Hass und die Liebe, nicht nur die Verletzung und die Heilung. Die beiden waren Vater und Sohn in einem der berührendsten Momente“
(German) Review Robert Salzer – Students Magazin (CH) – Click here
“In einem wunderbaren Schluss wird der Unterschied zwischen den beiden deutlich gezeigt.”
(French) Review Nadja Pobel – Le Petit Bulletin – Click here
“Dans un style encore très différent de tout ce que nous avions vu précédemment, le théâtre tient bon la barre dans ce festival et se renouvelle en permanence.”
(German) Review Andreas Tobler – Tages Anzeiger (CH) – Click here
“In der letzten grossen Szene stehen Sohn und der Vater mit entblösstem Unterleib gegenuber.”
(Hebrew) Interview by Benjamin (IL) – Click here
(French) Review Antione Wicker – DNA (FR) – Click here
“On y a flirté entre temps avec les meilleures idees comme avec des bons sentiments, … mais sincerite de l’engagement, fut-il ici ou là malhabile, y finit par faire mouche, avec claire conviction.”
(French) Recensie Antonio Mafra – Le Progres – Klik hier
“Avec « Ceci est mon père », Den Boer continue de raconter l’histoire de sa famille dans un pays qui fait face à la montée des extrémismes.”
(German) Review – NWZ (DE) – Click here
“Ein besonderer Leckerbissen – man verzeihe das Wortspiel – war „Bon Appetit“ von Ilay den Boer. In seiner kulinarischen Performance thematisierte der niederländisch-israelische Theatermacher die Zerrissenheit seiner Herkunft. “
(English) Analyses by Dramaturg Maya van den Heuvel-Arad (NL) – Click here
“It’s like performing psychosis”
Bio Ilay den Boer:
The Dutch/Israeli theatre maker Ilay den Boer (1986) was born in Jerusalem. When he was three years old he and his parents moved to
Holland. Ilay den Boer studied at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. In the season 2008/2009 he started with the series performances The Promised Feast. A series of six personal performances about the meaning of his homeland Israel through the eyes of himself and his family. The series is produced by Het Huis van Bourgondie (Maastricht, NL). With co-producers as detheatermaker (Antwerpen, B), Over het IJ Festival (Amsterdam, NL), Het Lab (Utrecht, NL) and Keesen&co (Arnhem, NL). In the meanwhile the work of Ilay den Boer was received very well in The Netherlands and abroad by press and public.
Furthermore Ilay den Boer is closely concerned by the theatre company Stichting Nieuwe Helden. Ilay den Boer won a lot of awards with his work (see above).
Team of The Promised Feast: Ilay den Boer, Maya van den Heuvel-Arad, Edo Sutherland, Piet Menu, Elsemieke Scholte, Femke Belmer, Jacobien Elffers, Gert den Boer, Eric de Vroedt, Willibrord Keesen, Lucas De Man, Anan den Boer, Melle Kromhout, Karin van Leeuwen, Arjen Barel, Jose Schuringa, Siri Klein Robbenhaar, Erma van Maris, Robert Richter, Tim van ‘t Hof, Joost Giesken, Dave Staring, Merel Schreurs, Nava Benyamini
