Production with Music of Jacques Brel
There are not many places remaining on the edge of the world. Permanent places where people meet, meet again and find themselves again. It is best if these places are overflowing with wine, music and caressing words that touch deep within. Bar Amsterdam is a place and a moment in time where Jacques Brel’s breezy tunes meet with everything that one must go through to give birth to the beauty we embrace.
A sphere of light. A microphone. A maestro with a robust face, singing “Do not leave me”, his soul bare and his face dripping with sweat from the effort. Jacques Brel set out to tell stories that were built on emotion. Brel performed his own works, capturing people with his lyrics and music, his soul reverberating with everything he himself had known and felt. The aim of this production is similar: to take the audience on a journey to the outskirts of the human soul, to touch the corners which bind us together. But also, to ask whether this binding would even exist if there were not an artist to reveal their inner layers, while burning both externally and internally?
The play moves from airy, elevated and emotive registers to deep and even disconcerting themes, not avoiding asking even the uncomfortable questions: until when is the necessary evil inevitable and from which moment do justifications become unjustifiable?
The play is set in a salon-like meeting place, with Brel’s songs setting the tone for exalted theatricality. What is most important though is the wine flowing in Bar Amsterdam.
The premiere is on 13 December 2025 at the Expedition's Studio at Krulli House.