Onafhankelijk Toneel in Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands | Theatre

Mirjam Koen, Ton Lutgerink and Gerrit Timmers, the three artistic managers of the Rotterdam company Onafhankelijk Toneel, have backgrounds in theatre, dance, and the visual arts. As a group, and in collaboration with guest actors, dancers and singers, they create theatre, dance, and opera.
Demolishing barriers
At first, the Hamlet mounted by Onafhankelijk Toneel two years ago seemed the ultimate production for this Rotterdam-based company. In it, the Danish prince expresses his inner conflict about more than just Shakespeare's famed words. Like a man in the grips of an invisible power he is hurtled back and forth across the stage; he cringes, whirls through space. Director Mirjam Koen and choreographer Ton Lutgerink threw out a lot of text in favour of dance. Hamlet was as much a dance production as it was a exclusively by Onafhankelijk Toneel.