Belgian theatre and opera director Ivo van Hove (1958) has been director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam (TA) since 2001. TA is the largest repertory theatre company in the Netherlands. The company presents innovative and contemporary staging of classical and contemporary theatre, co-produces, and extends invitations to interesting (young) makers.
Van Hove has directed Jean Cocteau's La voix humaine, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and William Shakespeare's Kings of War at TA, amongst others and is regularly invited to do guest directing abroad. His productions have been shown at leading international venues such as London's Barbican, BAM New York, Festival d'Avignon and the Wiener Festwochen. Last September, the second part of the Couperus trilogy, The Things That Pass, premiered at the Ruhrtriennale and he previously directed The Quiet Power in the same series.
What characterises TA?
We are the largest repertory company in the Netherlands. What sets us apart is that we work with an extensive permanent ensemble of actors in the classical sense of the word. Kitty Courbois was part of our ensemble until she was eighty; Robert de Hoog is only twenty-eight. Other companies often consist mainly of contemporaries. What else sets us apart: we make our performances in Amsterdam, but we play them all over the world, seventy to eighty performances a year outside the Netherlands. In the 2016/2017 season, for instance, The Fountainhead continued its world tour to Paris, Seoul and Taipei, Kings of War is a guest at the prestigious BAM New York, the Parisian L'Odéon has invited Medea in addition to The Fountainhead, we are going to Ireland for the first time with Song from Far Away, and both The Silent Power and The Year of the Lobster are in Moscow. We are travelling all over the world.
What is the importance of this international position of TA?
We have found a large audience abroad. We play in prestigious theatres in front of full houses – that is a very special position to be in. And the experience we gain there, we also bring back with us. There is a mutual influence. For instance, São Paulo was a revelation for me, as was Taipei, where we played for the first time: that curiosity! The hunger of the people! The knowledge of business! I met young people waiting at the exit, who wanted an autograph because, "We saw a performance of yours in Avignon!". Apart from being an ambassador of Dutch culture, we bring those experiences back to Dutch audiences. We keep a finger on the pulse of the world. Because the danger if you think you are the best is that others may simply pass you by.
How is the Couperus trilogy going, have you made any new discoveries in the making of The Things That Pass?
For me, Couperus is the most global writer in Dutch literature. He deals with themes that go far beyond the Dutch border and concern the whole world. For instance, The Things That Pass is about mortality. About people in their nineties, who are at the end of their lives and still find it hard to go. They don't want to die at all, because they still have plenty of wonderful things to live for. That is one of the central themes. There is also another one, which has been on my mind for a while myself, which has to do with the way we live together. This book is from 1906 and in fact Couperus shows himself to be visionary in it. After only a few pages, he asks the question whether family has not become obsolete. Is it still the cornerstone of our society? He describes an expanding family, part of which lives in London, and another part in Brussels, Nice and the Dutch East Indies. What he describes is actually a family of our time, where one might equally wonder what concepts such as the heart of the home and a warm nest still mean. It is what I - and I am not alone - have also been wondering for some time: shouldn't we gradually move towards other ways and forms of living together? Couperus transcends the chilly Hague milieu he knew so well in such a universal way that The Things That Pass becomes the story of lives not lived, wherever in the world.
How do you ensure that TA is always evolving?
We have chosen not to develop one particular style of theatre. There is no one 'Ivo van Hove style'. I make two performances a year, we make a total of six to seven on average, so over four years we work with at least 11 different directors. I choose them because I have something in common with them, but not because we are like-minded - not in world vision and certainly not in theatre style. I want directors who are very individual, who want to bring their vision to the stage in the most extreme, uncompromising, personal way. And: people who deal with themes and sensitivities that resonate with today's audiences. Themes that can be shocking, moving, compelling; that tell us something about today. You come to TA to see contemporary theatre. Even if you play texts by the Greeks, or Molière, or Shakespeare: it has to be about today, it has to be relevant today. When I joined Toneelgroep Amsterdam, we were expected to be cutting edge. That we are so is important, but that needn’t be frenetic, it should be natural. You shouldn't think: "We have to be hip", or something like that, then it will all go wrong. There was a time when Dutch companies put a lot of emphasis on new Dutch plays. That has maybe disappeared a bit, but that need is there again.
What place do you think the performing arts have within society?
Art that tells people what to think and feel, art with a moral meesage such as "this is good and that is bad", I don't think that is the place art should occupy in society. For me, that is more the place for politics, which should bring order. Art should show disorder, chaos, the chaotic, that which we question. I love being provoked, by a painting, a dance performance or a piece of music. I notice in myself that every time I see a play where the answers are given to me, I stand outside shrugging my shoulders. "Okay, that’s that solved..." Whereas it seems to me that life doesn't solve problems so easily. By asking questions, your mind develops. When you run out of questions to ask, you're mentally dead, actually. I try to achieve that with my theatre by raising questions rather than giving answers.
What do you find an interesting development within contemporary theatre?
That despite the drastic cuts that are being pushed through by the current government, fantastic exciting theatre is being made. And that in both small and large theatres. It is bursting with initiatives and collaborations. I believe that theatre will continue to be one of the most important art forms in the 21st century.
What are your future plans and ambitions?
We have a very complex operation as a company, which is incredibly rich, in the deeper sense of the word, and which really moves our work forward. This confrontation with the world also has to do with my views on theatre. Of course I love theatre that can be incredibly powerful and meaningful here, but you hope that if you take what you have made here to the other side of the world, it will also be powerful there. You hope that your work will be universal. A very strange ambition perhaps, but that's what you hope for.
And finally, which young theatre-makers are you keeping an eye on?
Maren E. Bjørseth. During her assistantship at After the Rehearsal / Persona, her drive, hunger for knowledge and craftsmanship already stood out. Her graduation production A Doll's House expressed her idiosyncratic talent, and with A Bride in the Morning she realised a crisp performance that was embraced by both press and audience. I see her growing and evolving production after production and look forward to her future work.
Published on 14 November 2016.
