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.

Oerol

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.

Spotify

Theatre production “Want er komen andere tijden 1 + 2” (“Because different times will come 1 + 2”) is all about protest. Theatre makers dive into history and compare it to the present. But, the audience is invited to share their opinions as well! Accompanied by a deafening band, they present a critical, interactive show.

Recensie

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.

Aflevering OVT

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.

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?

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”.

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?”

Circus Treurdier

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.

Circus Treurdier

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.

Circus Treurdier

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.

Circus Treurdier

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.