Bitef

In shows by Hollandia, ambient sound is often used as a musical element, both in the form of 'musique concrè-te', and, sampled and electronically distorted. The musical aspects of the text have always been a focus of attention for Hollandia. Formal musical principles have also been employed. As early as 1987 Paul Koek introduced the principle of the acting musician: an actor who does not carry on a dialogue with text but with music. Hollandia has for years been involved with the integration of music,'visuals en text into a form of (music) theatre, in which music plays just as important a role as text. In 1996 Hollandia founded the Veenstudio, run by Paul Koek, a music-theatre workshop within the company, where it is possible to undertake further research into the integration of music and text into an entirely new and personal form of music-theatre. Hollandia has developed a bald, 'abstract' and intense style of acting in which the actors form the consciousness of the situation in which the characters find themselves, their social position, what society has done to them and the life they lead. Without affecting the text, they improvise within the framework of the show. The awareness of space also plays an important role. Images are sought that remain atched on the retina like rock drawings. In the first ten years of its existence, Hollandia often chose plays that focused on people on the fringe of society or who placed themselves outside it. Characters who grab their chance when they see it, who manage to survive when fate strikes, who do not go along with thedelusion of the age, who do anything to avoid being roped in by those in power and who don't mind putting a spanner in the works of society if it gets too close. In other words, strong, self-assured, yet vulnerable loners. These people were found in the plays of Herbert Achternbusch and FranzXaver Kroetz, but also in the classical repertoire such as Prometheus and Persians by Aischylos, Woyzeck by Buchner and Lulu by Wede-kind. Recently twentieth-century workers have also been portrayed. That happens in Kingcorn mentioned above and in Minuet by Louis Paul Boon. Parallel to this, Hollandia wants to show whether those who lead our society use their power in a moral or immoral way. This was revealed in plays such as Leonce & Lena by Büchner, Phoenician Women and Ifigeneia in Aulls by Euripides and Voices by Pasolini. The national and international press often lauds Hollandia and attendances are growing steadily. Hollandia has been invited four times to produce a show for the Holland Festival, the largest and most renowned festival of the Netherlands. In the last ten years eleven shows have been selected for Het Theaterfestival, the annual selection by a jury of theatre critics of the twelve most important performances from Holland and Flanders. In 1996 the show Phoenician Women, put on in a démoli-

tion yard, received the annual Albert von Dalsum Prize, for both the most important show of the year and for a person or group with a significant oeuvre. In 1997, Voices won the Theaterfestival Grand Prix. In 1994. Büchner's Leonce and Lena and in 1997 The Fall of Mussolini (music-theatre by Dutch composer Dick Raaijmakers), were put on at the Ruhrfestspiele in Recklinghausen. In 1997, 1998 and 1999. Voices was performed (in German) in Germany (amongst others at the Festival Theaterformen), Austria (Wiener Festwochen) and Switzerland. The English version of Voices is Performed in 1999 in Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom and Portugal and can be seen in 2000 in Adelaide, Australia.