DEAR FRAIL MALE - Jonge Harten
Tickets

DEAR FRAIL MALE

Just van Bommel / Frascati Producties

Lisa Schamle

  • Admission

    <29 years €13,-
    >29 years €19,-

  • Festival Pass

    Unlimited access to Jonge Harten performances for €50? With the new festival pass, all you need to do is reserve your seat. Read here to find out how it works. Ages <29 years.

  • Duration

    50 minutes + FIELD TALK with Minne Thomas

  • FIELD TALK

    Every evening, the FIELD programme concludes with a short, in-depth FIELD TALK, moderated by education and theatre maker Minne Thomas.

    In the TALK, Minne, together with the audience and the creators, delves deeper into the themes of the performances on display in the Grand Theatre, offering an opportunity to ask questions, share thoughts and discover new perspectives.

  • Language

    English

  • Location

    Grand Theatre (downstairs)

  • Viewing guide i

    FIELD PERFORMANCE

Frail Male

What if, when it really matters, you were as quick-witted as you had hoped? In DEAR FRAIL MALE, Just van Bommel recounts a personal anecdote about an unexpected “encounter” with a group of boys. Just reworks this memory into a textual, rhythmic performance about the (quite literal) weight of the male norm.

Imagine you are on your way home and are approached by a group of fifteen boys. They ask questions about “what” you are, what you are wearing. Whether you have a penis or not. Overwhelmed by the event, you are unable to respond as you would like to. Nor are you able to ask the right questions in return. Not to mention wittily pointing out how sad and stupid your attackers actually are. And in the heat of the moment, you are completely unable to muster any empathy for the reason why these “child-men” are shouting hurtful things at you.

But what if you could?

In DEAR FRAIL MALE, Just gives the above memory a new form. Performed by two men (Michael Wanga and Niels van Heijningen), Just delves into the struggles of these boys in their search for an identity within a society that sees aggression as strength and vulnerability as weakness. In addition to being a response to the outdated, conventional image of masculinity, the performance is a desperate attempt to inspire men to take an emancipatory step.

Photo: Bas de Brouwer

About the artist
In their (always personal and highly formal) work, Just van Bommel (he/she/they) attempts to use lightness and humour to give space to the unpleasant aspects of existence. Just graduated as a performer from the Maastricht Theatre Academy in 2022. In their performances, they blend humour with tragedy, tapping into the trivial and the ordinary to create space for existential and universal questions. Light, personal, sometimes melodramatic and always full of self-mockery, so that heavy subjects might feel less heavy.

Since 2023, Just has been affiliated with Frascati Productions as a creator. Previously, they created the performance A divine aversion to DYING with Diane Mahín as part of Beginnings 2022 and Het Spektakeltje (2023) with Emma van den Elshout. Just also collaborated with Emma on the performances Het Showtje (Het DEBUUT, Via Rudolphi 2022) and the Parade performance Het Circusje (2024) at Likeminds.

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JONGE HARTEN VIEWING GUIDE

Jonge Harten offers a diverse program. But where do you start choosing? To clarify things somewhat, we have three main storylines that we are focusing on this year. You can see these lines throughout our program. So that you can easily choose which line suits you best and what you feel like doing at the moment. What are you going for?

AFTER

DE ARENA

DEEPENING

FIELD

FIELD was created to strengthen the bond with young talent and to give both the artists and the festival the opportunity to support people in the longer term and to make their “dreams” come true. We focus in particular on students who we feel (after conversations and performances) connect themselves as creators with the world beyond. In a conscious, critical and idiosyncratic way.

PERFORMANCE

PREMIERE

ROUTE

STAGE

A program line in which we put creative young people on stage and in which you can participate in great masterclasses yourself. We ensure that you are pampered all day long and of course we close the day with a great party, by none other than Clash!

TALK

TRY OUT

WORK IN PROGRESS

WORKSHOP

Kom je er toch nog niet helemaal uit? Geen nood: stuur een mailtje naar info@jongeharten.nl en vraag om nadere toelichting. Vermeld de titel van de voorstelling en waar je graag meer duidelijkheid over wilt hebben (is dit iets om met mijn vriend/vriendin naartoe te gaan? het is misschien wel grappig maar toch niet vulgair? dat soort vragen). De programmeurs van het festival geven je dan persoonlijk het verlossende antwoord!