companies
now
We Want More!
- We Are Sun City -
2019 - now
Two guys, 30 years old, musicians, moderately successful, but no big hits, decide to create a hit song with the audience as co-writer. A conscious choice, the audience, because ultimately, the audience will eventually need to provide massive amounts of Spotify plays and social media shares.
The guys have one single goal: To write that one song that no one will be able to get out of their head, that everyone can sing along to. The ultimate hit song, and with it, eternal fame. The occasional sensible lyric, the fact that the song hits you exactly where it hurts, and that it tackles its subject with precision: all pure coincidence.
In 45 minutes, they co-write a potential new hit song with the audience. In the writing process, the audience provides the most important ingredients: theme, genre, key, etc. Every show, a new song is written.
Maarten Heijmans sings Ramses Shaffy
2020
Maarten Heijmans records his version of Ramses Shaffy’s repetoir on his album RAMSES. This spring, Maarten Heijmans and his band play the songs from RAMSES live, during the RAMSES album tour.
The collection of songs that Maarten selected for RAMSES contains well-known Shaffy songs such as ‘Sammy’, ‘Laat me’, Zing vecht’, and ‘We zullen doorgaan’, but he was determined not to have this be a Best of, containing only sing-along songs. “The Shaffy songs that have touched me most, might be among his lesser known work, songs like ‘Als je niet bij me bent’ or ‘Slaapliedje’. Each song on this album has meant a lot to me during preperation for and shooting of the television show, and I’ve managed to add something personal to each of the tracks”.
Een antwoord op alle vragen
- Laura van Dolron -
2018 - now
Acting, music & performance: Laura van Dolron, Willem de Wolf, Frank van Kasteren & Wilko Sterke / Dramaturgy: Barbara Van Lindt / Set design: Marloes & Wikke / Lighting design: Gé Wegman / Photo: Lars van den Brink
With ‘Een antwoord op alle vragen’ (‘An answer to all questions’), Laura van Dolron builds a safe space for questions, in a laboratory full of answers. Assisted by actor and writer Willem de Wolf (de KOE), and musicians Wilko Sterke and Frank van Kasteren (Circus Treurdier, Orde van de Dag), she invites her audience to write down a question. The questions form the basis for a show that is composed live every night, on a knife edge, with humor, but also the ambition to find the answers the audience deserves!
A philosophical theatre-concert full of searching and finding, full of hope and despair, and eventually, maybe, an answer that transcends all questions.
then
Lisa Ostermann
2022
In 2022 gaat de avondvullende voorstelling ‘Met zo’n allen’ van Lisa Ostermann in première, met muzikaal advies, co-writes en producties van Frank van Kasteren.
Lisa Ostermann won in 2020 zowel de Juryprijs als de Publieksprijs als de Studentenjuryprijs op het Leids Cabaret Festival. Ze werd door de Volkskrant uitgeroepen tot hét comedytalent van 2021.
Lisa maakt ‘spannend en geestig cabaret,’ aldus de Theaterkrant. Ze ‘kreeg iedereen moeiteloos mee’ (NRC) en heeft ‘een sterke zangstem’ (de Volkskrant). Lisa ‘zette het publiek vanaf de eerste minuut op het verkeerde been’ maar ‘wist ook te ontroeren’ (NRC). ‘Haar veelzijdigheid maakt dat er reikhalzend wordt uitgekeken naar haar volgende programma’ (de Telegraaf).
https://lisaostermann.nl/speellijst/
Orde van de Dag
2010 - 2017
De Orde: Greg Nottrot, Mark Kraan, Daan Windhorst, Jibbe Willems, Michiel Lieuwma, Marcel Osterop, Frank van Kasteren, Wilko Sterke e.a. / Fotografie: Willem Popelier / Logo: Woes van Haaften
The successful satirical, hyper-current current affairs show Orde van de Dag (Order of the Day) was put on once a month at Utrecht’s Stadsschouwburg, on a regular basis at Eindhoven’s Parktheater, and often in Mechelen. In the news today, on stage tomorrow!
With every edition of the show, a team of actors, musicians, comedians, and writers, led by theatre-maker Greg Nottrot, sheds a surprising light on the strangest stories from the news. Sketches, songs, columns, theatrical scenes, and poems, anything’s possible in these shows, which are always unique and performed only once. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving, but always with one important mission in mind: to create a bit of order in the day’s delusions. Each show features the same news team with different guests.
De Futuristen
- Nieuw Utrechts Toneel / De Nwe Tijd -
2019
Live music: Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren, Lisa Lukaszcyk / Director: Greg Nottrot / DA: Mariëlla van Apeldoorn / Scenography: Morgana Machado Marques / Concept, text and acting: Greg Nottrot, Mark Kraan, Freek Vielen, Suzanne Grotenhuis, Jibbe Willems, Marcel Osterop / Production: Het Nieuw Utrechts Toneel / Co-production: De Nwe Tijd, Het Zuidelijk Toneel / Editor: Erwin Maas / Lighting design: Uri Rapaport / Technical staff: Richard Bron, Joery Nijenhuis (stage), Thierry Wilders / Thanks to: Yvonne Verlaat, Bebamboo, Lipkje Ferwerda, Global Powwow
De Futuristen (The Futurists) is a thrilling, musical, theatrical thought experiment that plays out all over again, every night. With help from scientists, philosophers, musicians, and theatre-makers, we discover how we will eat, love, travel, die, care, pray, work, learn, and fight in tomorrow’s world.
Since the dawn of time, we have been attempting to master the elements, and have aimed to make our lives more pleasant, safer, more orderly. But which dangers are we overlooking? And how can we keep these dangers under control?
In 2017, De Idealisten (The Idealists) came to Oerol. In a large yellow dome, we searched for ideals. The Dome returns! It’s even bigger now, and ready for take-off. Inspired by technological developments, De Futuristen sketch the world of 2129. In nine different shows, we find solutions for today’s problems, and look ahead to our next challenges.
Peter van Rooijen
2015 - 2018
In 2012, he and Wim Sonneveld win the Wilko Sterke Award, during the Amsterdam Kleinkunst Festival (Amsterdam Cabaret Festival), with the show “Team Peter”. According to tot the jury, a “brilliant show”, in which the line between real and fake is blurred, and the value of that is.
In the years that follow, Peter creates two full cabaret shows with keyboard player Anne Punt. “Wat doe ik hier?” (“What am I doing here?”) in 2013 and “Nergens veilig” (“Not safe anywhere”) in 2015.
Since 2018, Peter has been working with musical theater company Circus Treurdier as a creator. He is also a part of the singer/songwriter collective Het Nieuwe Lied (The New Song).
In 2015 he released his first album, titled “Er is iemand thuis” (“Someone’s home”.
This year, his second album “Liefde, dood & zwaartekracht” (“Love, death & gravity”), was released, on October 10th at Theater Bellevue in Amsterdam.
Frank can be heard on both albums, and during both album tours.
Shakespeare Muziek
2017
Director: Frances Sanders / With: Sjoukje Hoogma and Loek Zonneveld
In Shakespeare Muziek (“Shakespeare Music”), Loek Zonneveld, in his legendary, compelling way, talks about our eternal contemporary William Shakespeare. Sjoukje Hoogma and Frank van Kasteren perform quirky, modern-sounding interpretations of Shakespeare sonnets.
Loek, it was an honor and a pleasure. We’ll miss you.
Support for Caesar – Orkater (Amsterdamse Bos)
Wilhelmina Living Room Festival
JAN EEF Festival
Art of Wonder
et al.
Wonderfeel
2017
With: Nora Fischer, Raoul Steffani, Laetitia Gerards, Charlotte Haesen, Maria Pedano, Rikkert van Huisstede et al. / Band: Mascha van Nieuwkerk, Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren
Das Grote Wunderlichen Liederfest was an evening at the classical music festival WONDERFEEL 2017, presented by Mascha van Nieuwkerk. A combination of classical and modern repetoire. Together with Frank van Kasteren and Wilko Sterke.
De Idealisten
- Orde van de Dag -
2017
Idealists: Greg Nottrot, Laura van Dolron, Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren, Marcel Osterop and Mark Kraan / Set: Morgana Machado Marques
Every night, Greg Nottrot, Laura van Dolron, Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren, Mark Kraan, and Marcel Osterop make a sincere effort to join you in an attempt to make the world better and more beautiful. A search for a cure for their own cynicism, pragmatism, and weak excuses.
Inspired by special futurists, activists, optimists, visionaries, dreamers, and politicians, who come and help think with us live, we heal the world. A musical thought experiment that’s different every night.
In De Idealisten (The Idealists) we look for the holy fire that helps us advance. How do we light it, how do we keep it burning, and how can we light a fire under others? Is the idealist’s battle hopeful or hopeless? Can we, as theatre-makers, make a concrete contribution to the betterment of the world? Who are the great idealists of our times? And what do they want, and how will they achieve it?
De Extremisten
- Orde van de Dag -
2015
Concept & Regie: Greg Nottrot / Concept & Tekst: Jibbe Willems / Tekst: Fikry el Azzouzi / Vaste Acteur: Mark Kraan / Muziek: Frank van Kasteren / Muziek: Wilko Sterke / Posterontwerp: Greg Nottrot
With De Extremisten (The Extremists), Jibbe Willems, Fikry El Azzouzi and Greg Nottrot started an investigation into various forms of extremism that hide in our society and that sometimes, unexpectedly, explode in our faces. They took their audience hostage and locked themselves in every night at Vrijstaat O for an hour and a half, to perform a spiritual autopsy on a number of extremists in various guises.
Their research subjects were the Kouachi Brothers, the Norseman Anders Breivik, the Red Ulrike Meinhof, the Deadly Malika El Aroud, the Unforeseen Kim de Gelder, and the Jew Jesus Christ. And with these extremists, they researched the extremism of love and death, brotherhood and soloism, the unexpected and darkest black of the soul, the male and the female, the ideology or the complete lack of it, the right and the left, the cruel and the naive, the mercy and the punishment, heaven and hell. Every night, they dove into this research with the audience and guest writers, a range of actors, musical guests, and experts from various, surprising disciplines. Not to provide the ultimate answer to the question of ‘why’, but perhaps to offer a literary and theatrical counterweight to the power of devastation and the ideology of destruction. Because hope may provide the only solace in a senseless wasteland.
They were five unique, exciting evenings. Flemish reviewer Filip Tielens mentioned De Exremisten in his end-of-year list, calling it “Uber-exciting”.
Theatre Ball
- bandleider -
2014 - 2017
2014 – Director: Greg Notrot / Presenter: Rick-Paul van Mulligen
2015 – Director: Greg Notrot / Presenter: Maarten Heijmans
2016 – Director: Greg Notrot / Presenter: Eva van der Gucht
2017 – Director: Marcus Azzini / Music with Bart Reinink
Kerst met Kaak (Christmas with Kaak)
- Circus Treurdier -
2012 - 2014
Acting & concept: Thomas Spijkerman, Peter van Rooijen, Ellen Parren, Imke Smit, Jan Paul Buijs / Music: Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren / Director: Joost van Hezik / Costumes and set: Janne Sterke / Lighting: Yuri Schreuders / Production: Inge Zeilinga / Poster: Joost de Haas
As an ice-cold winter wind haunts the streets, and Christmas bums scratch at the windows, TV personality Frederik Kaak is bent over his desk on Christmas Eve, plotting his comeback. “Christmas is an opportunity!” Kaak says, foaming at the mouth, “and this guy will make his way back on the small screen!” He plugs up his ears to drown out the sound of empty stomachs rumbling, and writes: “A non-committal, no, a spectacular, no a Kaak-y Christmas!” He scratches it all out. “I’m on a deadline! This is going to take all fucking night!”
The clock ticks. Five to midnight. It’s snowing. His new TV-format is still not finished, and the hour of Christmas ghosts approaches. “What is Christmas?” Kaak contemplates, “and who am I? Where did I come from? What are my hobbies? When does this end? And how?”
Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé 5
- Circus Treurdier -
2012
Actors & makers: Peter van Rooijen, Ellen Parren, Thomas Spijkerman, Roos van Erkel, Freek den Hartogh, Jeroen Gunning (words only) / Music: Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren / Director: Joost van Hezik / Costumens & set: Janne Sterke / Lighting: Eelke Slooten / Production: Inge Zeilinga, Vera Vlot / Technical staff: David te Marvelde, Selwyn Elink Schuurman / Poster: Joost de Haas
Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé (The Eternal Night Cafe) is a mix between theatre performance and cabaret. Absurdist scenes and sketches, combined with songs and music. There are several short breaks, and the bar remains open until deep into the night.
As thousands leave the voting booths sad, Circus Treurdier celebrates a new dictatorship at Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé. Dadaist despot Koenijn treats everyone to drinks, bawdy music, machine gun poetry and cannonfodder.
“The democracy of the dumb is making us world weary, and we’re done with the imaginationless’ reign of terror. Power to the elite, and banish the people from the country! Ratatata!”
We congregated in a square.
A Koenijn song was sung.
The People are being hanged
The People are being hanged
From the tallest gallows.
There was hoisting and hoisting
Until the people were a tiny dot.
And if you peer out your window now, and look very carefully,
very, very far from here
you can still see the people hanging
in the air.
Like a feint, dry, arid star.
Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé 4
- Circus Treurdier -
2012
Spelers & makers: Ellen Parren, Peter van Rooijen, Thomas Spijkerman, Elise Schaap, Freek den Hartogh, Hanneke Last, Imke Smit, Jan-Paul Buijs / Muziek: Wilko Sterke, Frank van Kasteren / Regie: Joost van Hezik / Kostuum & decor: Janne Sterke, Steffie van Lamoen / Lichtontwerp: Frans Baudoin / Productie: Inge Zeilinga / Poster: Joost de Haas
Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé (The Eternal Night Cafe) is a modern cabaret; a surrealist theatre cafe. It’s a place to get a drink and forget (or think) about your troubles, have a good conversation with old friends, but most of all, to experience the Reve-esque, literary-philosophical, ironic-comedic, in short: typically ‘Treurdier-esque’ musical theatre.
We sit in our solar system’s last authentic cafe.
The world has ended and we’ve left for the moon.
Where all heavy thoughts seem lighter.
Where we drink to forget but never forget to drink.
Until we’re kicked out together and we all watch the earth rise.
There’s a crisis raging, apparently, but especially now, Circus Treurdier keeps going. Through the flames, with sweaty brows, but with our backs straight and our chests out. Now that the earth is burning all around us, it’s important to show our fire. To come together, drink together, and comfort one another with stories and songs that connect us and allow us to dream of a new world.
Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé 3
- Circus Treurdier -
2011
Actors: Jeroen Gunning, Jan-Paul Buijs, Peter van Rooijen, Sjaan Duinhoven, Freek den Hartogh, Imke Smit, Ellen Parren, Wilko Sterke, Roos van Erkel, Frank van Kasteren, Jan Teertstra / Director: Thomas Spijkerman / Costume & set: Janne Sterke / Lighting: Jeffrey Steenbergen / Photography: Tom Bakker and Joost de Haas / Production: Inge Zelinga / Poster: Joost de Haas
It was the start of September.
Another year had passed.
For the third year in a row, for six days, Circus Treurdier opened the doors of “Het Eeuwige Nachtcafé” (“The Eternal Night Cafe”).
For anyone with a longing for the past (and a slight fear of the future).
Together, we tried to forget about being in “the now” and that, in Dutch, the word for time rhymes with that for regret.
What was so wrong with 1988? Or 1992? Why was the great year 2000 so quickly thrown in the trash?
In the Amsterdam Fringe Festival’s basement, we sang songs about the Past, and drank to the Future.
We dragged you onto the dance floor of your first high school dance, and gave you a second chance.
Children aren’t allowed to drink, and those who drink aren’t allowed to be children anymore.
With Circus Treurdier, both are allowed.
MOOI-concerts
- Amsterdamse Bos -
2011 - 2014
MOOI 1 – 2011 with Maarten van Roozendaal, Ellen ten Damme, Theo Nijland, Paul de Munnik, et al.
MOOI 2 – 2014 with Bart Reinink (La Garcon), Cato van Dijck, Yori Swart, et al.
Mooi is a theatrical concert where well-known artists perform alongside promising, upcoming talent.
The best songs are played in the fairytale-like surroundings of the Amsterdamse Bos Theatre.
The first MOOI-concert took place in 2011, at the time still in cooperation with Maarten van Roozendaal. The concert title was taken from one of the best songs he left us.
Ceci n’est pas jazz
2010
Director: Thomas Spijkerman / Music: Wilko Sterke / With: Viktor van Woudenberg, Jan Teertstra, Freek den Hartog, Lieke van den Broek, Sjaan Duinhoven, Hanneke Last, Thijs Steenkamp, Lottie de Bruijn and Bas Sligting