Strangers die je naait

Review commissioned by Zefir7 | June 2007

The founders of three studios, BARLOCK, PING PONG and NLXL, have one thing in common: their professional careers started by and large at Dumbar Studio (Ping Pong, however, prefers to say it had a temporary stay there). Graced by the title “Strangers die je naait”, they visited zefir7 in the beautiful establishment Stella, on Thursday 7 June 2007.

It became clear at once that the umbilical cord between them and Dumbar Studio had been severed definitively long ago. Neither the organizers of Zeebelt Theatre, nor the audience were allowed to pry into this any further. Starting at a legendary studio turns out to be comparable to having a famous father: everybody wants to know what the man is really like, and what you have got from him. Mainly irritation proves to be the result, once you yourself have finally done with it years ago.

At the same time, the past is the common factor binding the three studios together. Perhaps they were now joined under a slight aversion, for it is as if the game-show format of the evening was chosen to prevent too much talk about the past. Beach or mountains? wine or beer? which studio prefers cola? What transpired most from the answers to these questions was the resentment at their silliness. Abusing the quizmaster also provided great entertainment, be it of a kind that the audience probably had not come for.

The evening was punctured by brief sketches performed by Lust. Thus we saw an imitation of Gert Dumbar’s famous peanut-butter test on new associates, and an interpretation of his version of “Strangers in the Night”. To outsiders these were little chunks of eccentric incomprehensibility.

In due course the quick repartees between Barry de Bruin and Bob van Dijk developed into the main act. The other speakers and the audience stood by and watched. Joost Rozenkrans and Maarten Jurriaanse make an effort to check their partners, but train is already running at full speed. Nilly-willy, they do show in this the red wire between Dumbar Studio and themselves. The person in charge of the studio is a man with charisma, who likes to drink a glass of wine and charms his public effortlessly, while himself remaining as elusive as a bar of soap in the shower.

Finally, each studio was given the opportunity to present itself in a ten-minute time-span. Ping Pong spoke about its present achieve-ments and showed recent work; Bob van Dijk (NLXL) did not mind telling anecdotes about his time at Dumbar Studio; lastly, Barlock had the easiest time of it by showing a brief studio-film of their work and atmosphere, without adding much to it in a personal way.

And the founder of all founders? He sat quietly among the audience, without stealing the show. What did he think of the evening? “That boy did not use enough peanut-butter.”