Beach Drama Joran expressed great theater

January 20, 2010

AMSTERDAM - The fictional story about what happened between Joran and Natalee in Aruba must have the impressive text.
A warm evening in an island paradise. So Rob de Graaf describes the location where his play with Joran is going to sea. On the wall of the theater is written in large letters FICTION. It clearly is: a fictional story about how the time on the beach in Aruba should have gone. On that fatal spot where a twisted Romeo (Joran van der Sloot) and a troubled Ofelia (Natalee Holloway) have met.

Realism
 
With Joran at Sea is played by New West, directed by Marine Jongewaard which avoids any hint of realism. He puts his Joran (Wouter Zweers) behind a microphone, and Natalee (Sanne Vogel) meters away on its own site. Between them is mother Beth Holloway (Marjon Brandsma) behind a table. Only once the kids have physical contact with her and Joran a gentle hug and a tender kiss approaches - but it is a kiss of cold lips, and a sick mind.
 
Three broken people who tell their story in retrospect, moreover remarkably close to the events on that island remains possible. Hypothetical is the way they express their experiences, but the fact is most probably Joran that Natalee was murdered and her body at sea disappeared. So it is here, but how and why, let Rob de Graaf his imagination over, wrapped in an impressive scene text, which consists mainly of monologues.
 
"Life is to overcome fear," which is the motto which they hold. Pity that the young actors and Zweers Bird still unable De Graaf's layered, sometimes baroque text and interpretation to provide sufficient expressiveness. They are simply too inexperienced for such a difficult form of theater.
Beschadigde vrouw Damaged Women
 
Oddly enough, the mother Beth interesting character. Brandsma plays it beautifully: strict, austere and cramped by grief, with an exemplary text treatment. A damaged woman who was raped once. Natalee was born from that act, and the torn body of the mother - "I'm a restored ruin. It provides an uneasy mother-daughter relationship, showing Natalee is freeing itself by drawing attention to those exciting, beautiful boy on the beach.
 
Also Joran talks about his origins, his neat family. He reads Nietzsche and feel akin to Vincent van Gogh. His distorted image of man in a seriously warped view of sexuality. "You're nothing, Natalee, you have a hole where my enjoyment may disappear."
 
If we see a kind of epilogue to a film Joran confident in the TV studio Pauw & Witteman. Behind the swagger is a cold killer in hiding, who will soon looking for another victim. This is a little too much reality in a performance that should have precisely the fictional.