Annemijn is on the verge of her graduation phase. She's already working on her graduation project. “Every student makes a final. The first concepts had to be submitted in December. You are free to do what you like, although the course naturally does set a framework. We are supported by our dramaturge Cécile Brommer and we’ve also received feedback from several lecturers. So we are already a little way down the road."
North Korea
Her final is called ‘Geste’, or gesture. It started a while back when she read the book Without You There Is No Us by Suki Kim. Suki is South Korean and went undercover as a lecturer in North Korea. As a result, she got an inside perspective on the North Korean elite. “It was a great book and a tough read at times. I started reading more about the situation in North Korea and I was really shocked. It even kept me awake at night and it was immediately obvious that this was so important to me, I had to engage with it somehow. But as a white Western woman, I didn’t feel comfortable making a performance about North Korea. My next thought was to do something with a refugee. But that's still far too dangerous. So that wasn't really an option either."
Differences and similarities
"I asked myself what it was about this subject that fascinated me so much. Firstly of course the human suffering. That really affects me. But besides that, I think it's really awful when freedom is taken away. My life in the Netherlands is the complete opposite of the life of a village girl there, for example. I have so many freedoms here that I really value. That's why I decided to compare the lives we lead and concluded that in many ways the Netherlands is heading towards dictatorship, yet we don't even realise it. That is a consequence of the political polarisation which is evident here. The risk of a civil war may not yet be significant, but it is growing. What’s more, I find it scary to see what is being done with our personal data. Take adverts on YouTube that are tailored to your algorithm, for example."
Own sect
Annemijn believes there are other points of correspondence between the Netherlands and North Korea. “I thought: perhaps it's better to talk about the fears I have than about a country I have never been to. I started thinking and quickly hit on the idea of creating my own sect. I then did a lot of research into it: how exactly does one of these sects work, how do they indoctrinate people, what kinds of sects are there, and so on."
Audience members on stage
For her final, she is going to make her own sect, explains Annemijn. "That means it will be an interactive performance. I am one of four actors and we will be inviting audience members to get up on stage. I have turned the steps in indoctrination into a piece of musical theatre. In this way, I hope to tempt the audience to join us, but also by appealing to their desire to be part of a group. After all, we humans are herd animals and we like to belong to a group, if only for safety."
Inspired by Hannibal
Annemijn always does a lot of preparation: books, documentaries, interviews, throwing ideas around with people, and so on. “I immerse myself in it completely so that I know everything, and then I start working with my actors on the floor. We start by philosophising, chatting, and then we get down to work." One thing she already knows for sure is that music will be a major component. "I took inspiration from the series Hannibal, in which there is constantly music playing – a kind of soundscape-like atonal layer of sound that is always there. That’s what makes the moments when there is no sound, or when it is tonal, so powerful! My piece will include a constantly ticking clock. I hope it works."
No applause
Another unusual feature of Annemijn’s final is the fact that she is not going to take applause. The audience usually needs that to mark the end and as a release, but she's not going to go there. "In concrete terms, in this performance that means the audience will be on stage with us and that the room will be empty. We're going to reverse the roles and we actors are going to sit in the room and applaud, and as soon as the audience starts applauding too, we're going to walk away. The usual promise at the end of their performance will not be honoured, leaving the audience hanging. In this way I am going to break with social convention and hope to provoke some engaged reactions."
Best of both worlds
"I come from a musical family. Both my parents are musicians in an orchestra, so I've had a pretty classical upbringing. But I also had a soft spot for theatre. So initially I followed that path: I applied to drama schools. But because I was not accepted, I eventually enrolled at the academy of music in Arnhem." During the introductory week, she bumped into a good friend who it turned out was doing Music Theatre, and that was when the penny dropped for Annemijn: it’s what she'd been looking for all this time. “It was the combination of my musical upbringing and my fondness for theatre. Switching courses was easy and since then I have been studying Music Theatre. I've never regretted it."
Future
"I find it really scary to step outside the safe bubble of school. With the pandemic, everything has become that much more uncertain and I find that it makes me really nervous. But I do have a clearer picture of what I ultimately want, which is to set up my own collective. Of course, that's not going happen straight after graduation. Until then, I'm going to approach other collectives and try to set up collaborations. And I'll try to get my own work performed at festivals, to get my foot in the door there as well. Hopefully I'll succeed in making a bit of a name for myself, and then one day I'll be able to set up my own collective."
