‘Hey, hey, nice that it’s finally not 57 degrees anymore’
Yep, he’s back. Of course he’s back. The Parade is traditionally not without the whirligig, the revolving center of the festival. And still the same boss of the stuff. He routinely receives the tickets from those originally seated in the seats, even routinely he gives each seat a tug later during the ride, resulting in them swinging wildly back and forth. Floating is life has been the company motto here for many years.
This Saturday of the opening weekend it is quieter at De Parade than during a regular Saturday, which of course has everything to do with the weather. Even so, the whirligig is full with every ride. At one of the beer tables around the whirligig – best seats in the house – a group of friends who can work on a calculation of the water earned with the whirligig.
After a real fiddling with the calculator, they arrive at a resounding turnover for more than three weeks in Amsterdam. “And earlier this summer De Parade was also in Eindhoven, The Hague and Utrecht, wasn’t it?’ repeated the phone is pulled. Yes, is quite a turnover, all in all. The realist of the company: “But that man also has his costs, doesn’t he. He will have to pay quite a bit of stageld.”
Deliciously coarse
At the traveling theater festival De Parade, everyone is responsible for their own business. That whirligig man, but certainly also all the actors, jokers and musicians who perform in the tents. What is new is that the festival will receive a small subsidy for the first time in history. The money will be used to offer joint theater makers a little more certainty after two years of corona misery.
No idea they also benefit from that subsidy scheme, but from the occasional company 155 and Magic Tom & Yuri are young. But old enough to be able to look back at a youth at the beginning of the noughties. the show alt is a hilarious, largely danced ode to the subcultures of the time. Bodily, wacky and wonderfully coarse. Place of performance: Kliko youth center somewhere in the countryside.
“What’s your name,” one of the players asks from someone in the audience. “Herman”, is the answer. Then the players keep coming back to Herman, who, like them, would be a true alto who does exactly what he feels like. “Respect, dude.” There is even one lied to him. What not everyone realizes is that that Herman somewhere in one of the front rows is Herman van der Zandt, the TV presenter.
Dust clouds
Visiting De Parade is also a lot of walking around the Martin Luther King Park. The Parade is also food and drink of course. For a glass you are quickly above 5 euros.
With all those strolling people, complete clouds of dust form above the paths on the bone-dry terrain. Only when night falls does the temperature decrease. Or as Kiki Schippers puts it: ‘Hey, hey, nice that it’s finally not 57 degrees anymore.’ The singer and comedian was called the Queen of the Parade 2022 in this newspaper. And also The Parool says says, then that’s true of course.
They lock themselves up in the biggest tent of the festival. Appropriate, because she is great: her physique, her personality, her bond (nine male/female strong) and above all her voice. In a whirlwind half hour she sings about a parrot copying everything and everyone, polluter Tata and – really – quantum mechanics. She makes jokes too. “Are there any farmers in the room tonight?” Sure enough, there is a finger going up in Amsterdam. “So this is culture.”
raffle
It is also highly recommended The Big Actualities Tombolain which actress Randy Fokke (you know her as the manager from the AH commercials) plays the popular hairdresser Mandy and Margôt Ros (best known from Tower C) her posh and intellectual client Willemijn. Every now and then, the tombola is involved in a topic from current affairs, the ladies then talk together.
Well, they are mostly talking completely past each other, both in bold accents. There is also improvisation. If the public is allowed to suggest a topic, farmers are also discussed here. It is understood when whores, the hairdresser and the poop madam have a bizarre conversation about whore protests. It’s very funny, but also clever how everything falls into place so improvised. It’s like jazz.
The Parade will be in Martin Luther King Park through August 28.