Huilende Kers hit op Prague Fringe!

Onze mannen van de Huilende Kers zijn een grote hit op het Fringe festival in Praag! Hieronder twee recencies van media aldaar.

By Sarah Chandler
Mon 25th May, 2009

I beseech you: go see this show.

If you asked me if I’d like to spend my Saturday evening in a hot subterranean theatre, watching two men in tight polyester gym suits sweat profusely while they impersonate fifth century Asian warriors with a series of homemade props, my answer would be an unequivocal no. But that was before I’d seen this frenetic, pitch perfect duo from Amsterdam, who do more with a banana and a gymnastics mat in one hour than some Broadway musicals do with a lavish set in three. I beseech you: go see this show. Bring your girlfriend, your boss, your mother-in-law, or your weird uncle: if they don’t delight in these hilarious yet utterly serious antics, you should probably end your association with them anyway.

In this truly innovative show, versatile performers Ian and Maarten turn the Western stereotype of the “funny Asian” on its head—and, for that matter, on its feet, stomach, and rear end. Both actors employ an eclectic array of performance styles, from beatboxing, martial arts, throat singing, and mime to embody classic stereotypes of geisha, samurai, Zen master and Japanimation hero. It’s a testament to their strong choreography and clown work that these types become fully and vulnerably human. At once slapstick and utterly moving, the two seethe with the full spectrum of human emotion: terror, elation, lust, and hatred. Spoken almost entirely in faux-Japanese gibberish, the show’s visceral effect on the audience reaches an apex when an earnest warrior battles a snorting Godzilla-esque dragon who literally rips his heart out. Come for the tremendous risk-taking, stay for the generosity: these guys may be dragon-slaying samurais, but they bravely wear their hearts on their polyester sleeves.

By Steffen Silvis
Posted: May 26, 2009

Circus Treurdier, consisting of Dutchmen Maarten Heijman and Ian Bok, is the male equivalent to the female Canarsie Suite duo: They are two performers with energy to burn, who have perfected their own brand of precision slapstick. Their Crying Cherry, justly given an award at the Amsterdam Fringe, is a wild retelling of an Asian tale concerning two separated brothers, who will meet years later as samurai/martial art rivals. From their violent inception (their foot-bound mother was ravished) to their bloody final encounter, the entire tale is performed with a full Chinese menu of cartoon Asian gibberish. All very un-PC, though the two Asian gentlemen sitting opposite of me were crying with laughter – as well they should be, as The Crying Cherry is uproarious. Mr. Heijman and Mr. Bok take the stage like two demented children’s theater performers, filling a full hour with an inexhaustible supply of jokes, pratfalls, song, music, multiple characters, a mad tea party and hand-puppetry, where their hands are the puppets. The story is, of course, a riff on the standard Asian martial arts films, something the two are undoubtedly students of, as they must also be of actual martial arts training, which ballasts their movement. It’s a circus of two in a very confined space, and well worth trying to join.