Event: New Year’s Eve Conference Claudia de Breij With: dancer Olga Smirnova Director: Titus Tiel Groenestege Television director: Misjel Vermeiren Costumes: Jan Taminiau Production: Breijwerk Seen: 31/12 Groningen, Stadsschouwburg Audience: 735 (vol)5 *
The tackle and goad reign, but not in the guise of bloodlust. Claudia de Breij is full of considerations and subtle asides in her third (unnamed) New Year’s Eve conference. Groningen experienced three thrilling performances. Received her with crackling applause, interrupted with countless ‘open canvases’, alternately bellowing elatedly, or dead still and moved. Dressed in the dress codes yellow and soft pink, she convinced the full house of her involvement by the alternation of points of view on the question of what 2022 was for a year. And especially her guts not to shy away from another matter: will it be ok? To quote the prime minister Wim Kan: not very well… “The prime minister waits until a problem is no longer a problem, but a crisis.”
Moreover, she is a singer, hence various, sometimes oppressive songs. Her fellow predecessors – all men, as far as I remember – usually threw in the lyrics when they needed something like a rest. De Breij is expressive and versatile in her timing, and certainly not of the obligatory numbers, although she highlights names and facts in passing. Tight in absurd ideas, she keeps interrupting herself. Signals, keeps an eye on the balance and tension arcs and does not enjoy the imagery about ‘the ship of state’ that misses a helmsman and therefore gets off course for too long. That makes a difference. Anyway, this is what you found on Saturday night at home on the couch. What you didn’t get is that she lost the lyrics during the first half hour during crackling associations, but recovered like lightning. A case of class that you can attribute to a new phenomenon, a diva in the cabaret sector. Pump up applause? Are you crazy. The audience went wild unrestrained.
In a previous theater performance she paid tribute to Heintje Davids, entertainment star just after the Second World War. Now it was Ede Staal (1943 – 1986), with a few lines from the famous It’s never been so dark west . Afterwards she did it again with the nameless choir of Groningers, who received the reassuring assurance before the start that no room recordings would be made. Fifteen minutes after the end, we talked about the security she creates. Claudia de Breij: „We have played the conference 55 times in the country, but in Doetinchem and in Zeeland you feel the similarity with the tormented Groningen. That is noticeably different in the Randstad. Totally different. I had to do this. Been working towards it for a year.”
In the hallway near her dressing room, Ted Bransen of the Dutch National Ballet explained how striking and original Claudia de Breij chose the ballerina Olga Smirnova. “In Russia she was critical of the policy, but it soon became apparent that the ground was getting too hot under her feet. She and her husband traveled to the Netherlands within a day with two suitcases of luggage. She is now working with us as our first dancer. As a result, she was missing on the opening night of Groningen.”
It is typical of Claudia that she generously allowed Smirnova to share in the unbridled acclaim. Indeed, the finale was touchingly beautiful. Strong and surprising.
PHOTO 2022 1213 1947
Claudia de Breij, surprising and moving. PHOTO HANS PETER VAN VELTHOVEN
