Nineties
Dutch contemporary theater collective. Using unconventional forms of theater that reflect the unseasoned present.
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Bring Back The Happening
Bring Back The Happening
Bring Back The Happening is neither a play, nor a show. In this performance, theater collective Nineties proposes a space for connection, offering grounding and healing in today’s turbulent transitions. While the sixties happenings disrupted norms, Nineties reclaims the form as a radical, living tribute to togetherness and presence. This performance features a Nineties actor collaborating with a local performer, weaving their meeting into a playful, interactive ritual celebrating collectivity.
“Between instructions, they tell seemingly careless anecdotes that you don’t notice until later how much meaning they give to the end result.”
“All elements coincide beautifully in the concluding build-up choreography, and the end result is spectacular and surprising.”Marijn van der Jagt, De Groene Amterdammer
Hi Ha Happening
Theater De Krakeling invited Nineties to create a youth version of Bring Back The Happening. Nineties has accepted the invitation and is rejuvenating this special theater ritual. Once again, we are settling down in the special gallery What Is Happening Here, everyone from 8 years old and up, be welcome!
Hi Ha Happening; it is neither a performance nor a show, but a real … happening! But what is a Happening? A happening is something you cannot do on your own, any more than you can be a soccer team, a choir or a dance floor by yourself. This happening is perhaps most like making a sandcastle together. They are there for a very short time, you build them and you leave them or the sea is already coming, but that is not the point, it is the moment you build them.
25-03-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
try out
26-03-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
try out
28-03-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
try out
29-03-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
try out
30-03-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
try out
01-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
première
02-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
05-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
06-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
07-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
08-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
09-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
12-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
13-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
14-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
15-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
16-04-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
22-04-2022
Tilburg
(Theater de Nieuwe Vorst)
23-04-2022
Tilburg
(Theater de Nieuwe Vorst)
24-04-2022
Tilburg
(Theater de Nieuwe Vorst)
18-06-2022
Antwerp
(Monty)
20-10-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
Hi Ha Happening
21-10-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
Hi Ha Happening
22-10-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
Hi Ha Happening
23-10-2022
Amsterdam
(Gallery: What Is Happening Here)
Hi Ha Happening
17-11-2022
Groningen
(Jonge Harten Festival)
18-11-2022
Groningen
(Jonge Harten Festival)
19-11-2022
Groningen
(Jonge Harten Festival)
24-04-2025
(WOW Festival)
25-04-2025
(WOW Festival)
26-04-2025
(WOW Festival)
27-04-2025
(WOW Festival)
Past PlaydatesCredits
- Concept
- Nineties & Marius Mensink
- Performers
- Marius Mensink, Nastaran Razawi Khorasani, Milou van Duijnhoven, Hélène Vrijdag
- Director
- Anne Maike Mertens
- Composition
- Aniek de Rooij
- Scenography
- Julian Maiwald
- Dramaturgy
- Han van Wieringen
- Costume design
- Esmee Thomassen
- Inflatable
- Elsmarijn Bruijs
- Creative producer
- Vevi van der Vliet
- Production manager
- Suzan Slinger, Merel Hobrink
- Technical engineer
- Marcel Janssen, Wout Jansen, HP Hulscher
- Graphic design
- Tom de Jager
- Publicity
- Esra Merkel
- Marketing
- Letice Braun
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Artificial By Nature
Artificial By Nature
A minimalist opera on human nature.
Annelinde Bruijs (artist, actor and composer) and Yannick Noomen (artist and actor) take on the role of two humanoid robots. In an hour long electronic composition they speculate, with a good dose of philosophy, about being human in present times. In Artificial by Nature, human life is sung about, by two robots nevertheless.
What does it mean to be human? What do we stand up for every day? And why do we do what we do? In this performance, the actors attempt to find answers as eager androids. Nineties is inspired by the ideas of philosopher Helmuth Plessner, in which he argues that humans are artificial by nature. According to him, humans are a species that is capable of both experiencing themselves and reflecting on themselves. They are not at home in nature, like an animal, but shape and construct their own lives questioning their own instincts. With the help of ‘artificialities’ such as language, technology and tools, mankind bumbles and stumbles through life searching for their true nature.
Nineties sees a certain sisyphical irony in the conflict between instinct and consciousness and makes a musical ode to the struggling human being, always trying to become something; itself in the best case.
“I believe robots offer an ideal perspective to observe ourselves from a distance. Through this alienating gaze, we can attempt to reach the essence of human existence—stripping away sentiment while fueling our wonder about what it means to be human. The stumbling, faltering human being is searching for who they are and what drives them. That is what we try to capture in this performance.”
Anne Maike Mertens, director“During this creative process, I get to explore how thinking sounds. I focus on the tempos and melodies in which thoughts are—or are not—spoken. The result is a stuttering composition, with ‘uh’ as its refrain. Through repetition and artificial voice distortion, we attempt to express ‘alienation.’ We make tangible the fact that we never fully align with the thoughts we have about ourselves—something that is both painful and beautiful.”
Annelinde Bruijs, actor and composer20-09-2025
Leiden
(Theater Ins Blau)
try out
31-10-2025
Amsterdam
(Theater Bellevue)
première
01-11-2025
Amsterdam
(Theater Bellevue)
02-11-2025
Amsterdam
(Theater Bellevue)
12-11-2025
Groningen
(Grand Theatre)
13-11-2025
Groningen
(Grand Theatre)
09-12-2025
Utrecht
(Theater Kikker)
10-12-2025
Utrecht
(Theater Kikker)
10-01-2026
Den Bosch
(Verkadefabriek)
21-01-2026
Rotterdam
(Theater Rotterdam)
22-01-2026
Amsterdam
(Bijlmer Parktheater)
27-01-2026
Den Haag
(Theater aan het Spui)
28-01-2026
Den Haag
(Theater aan het Spui)
29-01-2026
Tilburg
(Theater de Nieuwe Vorst)
30-01-2026
Dordrecht
(Kunstmin)
Past PlaydatesCredits
- Concept
- Nineties, Annelinde Bruijs
- Director
- Anne Maike Mertens
- Performers
- Yannick Noomen, Annelinde Bruijs
- Dramaturg, scenographer
- Julian Maiwald
- Technical engineer
- Marcel Janssen
- Producer
- Barbara Reijs
- Intern
- Joni van de Griendt
- PR, marketing
- De Wolven
- Creative producer
- Vevi van der Vliet
- Poster image
- Joost de Haas
All projects
2024
Birds
Birds
Anne Maike created the performance Birds with Dalton Jansen in the spring of 2022. A collaboration that started with the concept development and ended with the final direction. Dalton and Anne Maike found each other in combining dance and theater, in creating a world in which the physical adds up to the linguistic, an emotional visual language, an urgent social topic and the convergence of text theater and dance. Birds has received dance awards, full theaters and raving reviews and reactions. From the end of January ‘24 Anne Maike, Dalton and DOX, supported by Nineties and Theater Rotterdam, with a fresh new cast, will once again bring this extraordinary story to the theaters.
Birds is the starting point for collaborations between Black Birds and Nineties. In the coming years, several performances will appear in co-production, fueled by a curiosity about the encounter between the emotional language of dance and the often more conceptual language of theater.
‘Solitude is a good place to visit, a bad place to stay. Birds powerfully sums this up.’
Volkskrant ★★★★☆
Real freedom, what does that look like? Award-winning choreographer and dancer Dalton Jansen often looked out the window at the birds outside, in the youth care facility where he grew up. They were free, but busy all day gathering their food. How would he fare himself when he was free later? Would he manage, out there in the outside world? Dalton depicts the difficult road to adulthood for young people who cannot live at home.
Due to its success, Birds is back in theaters. In this 12+ performance full of dance, spoken word and music you will be sucked into the world of a young person living in a youth care institution. How do you deal with the future if you haven’t had a safe home? Are you ready for society? And is society ready for you?
‘Birds is confrontational, intelligent and intense. It makes big questions and dilemmas in youth care understandable. There is no right or wrong, but there is right ánd wrong.’
Aimee Heijdenrijk, director Pameijer Foundation
With Birds Dalton wants to show that it can be done: fighting your way out of a predicament, although it’s not easy. “When you live in a youth care facility, you can feel like an outsider. Parents, vacations, a ‘normal’ life: you don’t know all that. Thinking about the future can therefore be very frightening. Through the performance Birds, I can make it more discussable and give young people in a youth care facility a voice.”
In Birds, Dalton translates the stories of the young people he spoke with into a kaleidoscopic mix of disciplines that challenges to reflect. How do you deal with adversity? Do you dare to dream? Do you spread your wings, hoping to fly?
Prices Birds
Dalton made his first full-length performance with Birds at DOX in 2022. He won the Silver Cricket in the “most impressive production” category that same year. “To him, the birds outside are freedom; in here, the boy can’t go anywhere. Birds opens for us the door to his inner world, literally and figuratively. Although his sadness, anger and despair are gracefully mirrored in the dancers’ movements, Birds is above all raw and straightforward,” the jury said. During the 25th anniversary edition of the Nederlandse Dansdagen, the choreographer also received the Jonge Zwaan (‘22) for “the most impressive youth dance production.” From the jury report: Dalton Jansen has processed the socially topical and very personal theme of a long-term stay in youth care into a penetrating performance in which dance and acting are equal and complementary. Text, choreography and design are powerful, expressive and poignant.
Who is Dalton Jansen?
Dancer and choreographer Dalton Jansen (Rotterdam, 1993) graduated from the Urban Contemporary (JMD) program in Amsterdam in 2018. His choreographies are at the intersection of hip hop and contemporary dance. In 2021, he founded his own dance company BLACK BIRDS. Besides the awards for Birds, he also received the BNG Dansprijs (‘21), the Prijs van de Nederlandse Dansdagen (‘21), the DOX Award (‘21) and incentive award NEXT (‘22). In recent years he has been exploring - within the framework of the new maker’s subsidy from Fonds Podiumkunsten - his own dance vocabulary under the wings of Conny Janssen Danst, DOX and Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam (TR).
01-02-2024
Utrecht
(Theater Kikker)
02-02-2024
Utrecht
(Theater Kikker)
09-02-2024
(Theater Rotterdam)
13-02-2024
(Krakeling)
14-02-2024
(Krakeling)
15-02-2024
(Theater aan het Spui)
22-02-2024
(C.C. Beringen)
28-02-2024
(Schouwburg Hengelo)
01-03-2024
(Podium Mozaïek)
12-03-2024
(Parktheater)
21-03-2024
(ECI Cultuur Fabriek)
22-03-2024
(Schouwburg Het Park)
26-03-2024
(Theater De Veste)
03-04-2024
(Schouwburg de Lawei)
09-04-2024
(Theater Heerlen)
11-04-2024
(Schouwburg Orpheus)
18-04-2024
(De Maaspoort)
23-04-2024
(Frascati)
24-04-2024
(Frascati)
02-05-2024
(Podium Hoge Woerd)
09-05-2024
(MAAS)
15-05-2024
(Leidse Schouwburg)
16-05-2024
(Stadsschouwburg Utrecht)
Past Playdates
Credits
- Concept
- Dalton Jansen
- Choreography
- Dalton Jansen, co-created by Rúben Garcia Arabit, Jefta Tanate
- Final direction
- Anne Maike Mertens
- Text
- Bart van den Donker, Leandro Ceder, Dalton Jansen, Anne Maike Mertens en in cocreatie met performers
- Performers
- Tuan Tran, Youri Peters en Joenoes Polnaija
- Music
- Winterdagen
- Lighting design
- Jasper Nijholt
- Costume design
- Odair Pereira en Melitia Grace Wiebers
- Artistic coaching
- Timothy de Gilde, Hildegard Draaijer
2023
To Be Continued
To Be Continued
An experience of time in a digital age
Our digital age has accelerated life to no end. In nanoseconds, we can access anything we want to know, interact with anyone, and create entirely new worlds. You might be forgiven for thinking we have gained control over time, but have we really?
How do digitization and technology affect our perception of time? Nineties presents ‘To Be Continued’, an audiovisual production starring digital technology without a single actor. As soon as you buy your ticket, you get to meet the protagonist of this installation; a chatbot on Telegram in need for your input for it’s digital performance on site. With this multimedia installation the makers want to highlight how modern-day digital culture and technology affect our interactions with time.
scan the QR code to start
or click here on your smartphone
after downloading Telegram for the first time
scan or click again to activate the bot
For ‘To Be Continued’ Nineties joined forces with video artist Noralie, digital artist studio Moniker and musician/producer Philipp Thimm. Collaborating for this mix of digital media, they create a digital performance on Telegram and on site, with immersive animation and music inspired by the world of interfaces, apps and preloaders.
With this production, Nineties takes the next step in its creative journey by going beyond the theatre and exploring new media as theatrical storytellers.
“To Be Continued is een overdonderende performance over digitale technologie”
Vincent Kouters - Volkskrant
DISCLOSURE:
1. This production can only be experienced with a smartphone and uses messenger service Telegram. By buying a ticket you agree to the use of this platform. Your contact details remain protected and are not shared with other users or companies. Telegram offers more privacy and security options than Whatsapp and can also be used without sharing your mobile phone number. Click here for the FAQ!
After scanning the QR code or clicking on the URL, the rest is done automatically and you will be in contact with our bot in a few seconds! Even if you don’t use Telegram yet: you will be automatically asked to download the app, activate the bot by scanning or clicking the link one more time.
2. This theatrical installation uses strobe effects.
Credits
- Concept
- Nineties, Noralie, Moniker
- Directors
- Yannick Noomen, Noortje van den Eijnde
- Digital design and development
- Moniker, Luna Maurer, Roel Wouters
- Technical development bot
- Moniker, Thomas Boland
- Intern
- Fabian Pitzer
- Music
- Philipp Johann Thimm
- Scenography
- Julian Maiwald
- Technical producer
- Bart van Bokhoven
- Producer
- Merel Hobrink
- Creative producer
- Vevi van der Vliet
- Co-producer
- Moniker, MU
Een zondagmiddag…
Een zondagmiddag in Bellevue met een tekst die je waarschijnlijk niet kent
ONLY IN DUTCH
Eind deze winter laten we zes pareltjes glanzen, gedurende drie winterse zondagmiddagen in café de Smoeshaan van Theater Bellevue. Zes Nederlandse toneelteksten uit de theatergeschiedenis worden theatraal gelezen door gerenommeerde acteurs. Tussendoor is er soep en brood. Bier en jenever wordt eerlijk geturfd op je bierviltje. Een zondagmiddag in Bellevue met een tekst die je waarschijnlijk niet kent is een reeks aan lezingen voor de theater- en literatuurliefhebber. Nineties en Theater Bellevue vragen met deze reeks meer aandacht en waardering voor de toneeltekst van eigen bodem. Onder leiding van regisseur Anne Maike Mertens van Nineties en Tom Helmer dramaturg en programmamaker van Theater Bellevue, selecteert in 2023 een zes-koppige redactie, zes ‘vergeten’ Nederlandse toneelteksten die aansluiten op actuele thematiek.
op het programma
Op 12 februari wordt de reeks afgetrapt met: Brandgrens van Enver Husicic en Dracula en Hyde van Michael Mathews. Brandgrens van Enver Husicic is een theatertekst uit 2007 over de spanningen tussen Rotterdamse jongeren en de politie die dreigen uit te monden in een grote confrontatie die op het eerste gezicht sterk doet denken aan de Curaçao Uprising (Trinta di Mei) op 30 mei 1969. Een dag waarop Curaçaose arbeiders, onder leiding van Wilson ‘Papa’ Godett, in opstand kwamen tegen oneerlijke beloning en ongelijkheid tussen zwart en wit.
Dracula (1993) en Hyde (1995) van Michael Mathews zijn twee stukken uit zijn monstertrilogie. De markante theatermaker Micheal Matthews is een van de blikvangers van het Nederlandse avantgarde-theater uit de jaren negentig. Hij verbond de Grieken met funk, opera met clubcultuur, cult-horror met klaagliederen, en bewoog met evenveel gemak en elegantie in het nachtleven als in de theaterelite. Naast Enver Husicic en Micheal Matthews zullen er op 26 februari en 19 maart teksten voorgelezen worden van onder andere: Matin van Veldhuizen, Gerardjan Rijnders, Nadine Lavern en Sam Bogaerts.
“Het is bijzonder dat theater tijdelijk is en vervliegt, maar het zou nog mooier zijn als er ook iets van behouden blijft. Anders weet je ook niet op welke bodem je staat.”
Anne Maike Mertens in Het Parool
Achtergrond
Een zondagmiddag in Bellevue met een tekst die je waarschijnlijk niet kent is een vervolg op Stoffige Stukken. Nineties organiseerde in 2022 Stoffige Stukken, een ode aan langvergeten stukken van huisgezelschap van Bellevue, Toneelgroep Centrum. In navolging van dit geslaagde festival weekend waarbij met vijftien acteurs zes teksten werden herlezen en bevraagd zet Nineties, onder leiding van regisseur Anne Maike Mertens het herlezen voort. Er is dat weekend een waardevol gesprek geopend over tekst en tijdgeest, maar ook over Nederlandse traditie van herspelen en van toneelteksten. Nineties en Theater Bellevue lezen, luisteren en praten door. Want waar iets geschreven is, heeft iets geleefd.
“Een zeer geslaagde ode aan alles wat verloren is gegaan.”
Theaterkrant
Credits
- Regie, concept
- Anne Maike Mertens
- Programmamaker
- Tom Helmer (Bellevue)
- Redactie
- Anne Maike Mertens, Tom Helmer, Marjorie Boston, Liet Lenshoek, Melissa Knollenburg en Erwin Jans
- Productie
- Annelies Hendrikse
- Creatief producent
- Vevi van der Vliet
- Pers
- De Wolven
- Marketing
- Letice Braun, Casper Koster
