De officiële launch van Hadestown in Nederland!
Vorige week werd MusicalSpot uitgenodigd voor een wel heel bijzondere persevent. Het zal je niet zijn ontgaan dat Theater Carré volgend jaar de 8 Tony-awards winnende musical Hadestown naar Nederland brengt. Ter gelegenheid hiervan kwam niemand minder dan Anaïs Mitchell, de schrijver van Hadestown, naar Theater Carré.
Madeleine van der Zwaan, algemeen directeur van Theater Carré, sprak met Anaïs over de show en hoe het is dat deze naar het Nederlandse theater komt. Daarnaast zong Anaïs ook een aantal liedjes uit de voorstelling. We nemen je in onderstaand artikel graag mee terug naar deze speciale dag!
Het verhaal
Hadestown is groots, prachtig en emotioneel opzwepend en neemt je mee op een onvergetelijke reis naar de onderwereld en terug, waarbij twee mythische liefdesverhalen met elkaar worden verweven – dat van de jonge dromers Orpheus en Eurydice, en dat van koning Hades en zijn vrouw Persephone. Thema’s worden verkend van geloof versus twijfel en liefde versus angst.
Wedding Song
Een persevent in Theater Carré, stiekem wel één van de mooiste theaters van Nederland, is op zich al bijzonder. Maar een persevent bijwonen terwijl je OP het podium van Carré zit, is een hele nieuwe ervaring! Na een korte introductie van Madeleine van der Zwaan, werd Anaïs Mitchell erbij gehaald om een aantal nummers uit de show voor ons te spelen.
Het eerste nummer dat Anaïs voor ons speelde, was het nummer ‘Wedding Song’, een duet tussen Orpheus en Eurydice. In dit nummer vraagt Eurydice aan Orpheus hoe hij voor haar kan zorgen in deze donkere tijd. Orpheus reageert hierop met: maak je geen zorgen, ik ben een singer-songerwriter, het komt goed!
Luister het nummer hieronder:
Madeleine van der Zwaan: “I feel it’s so special for us to have Hadestown here in Theater Carré. Not only because it’s a beautiful show but for a lot of other reasons as well. One of them is that it is a type of show in which are so many layers. And as an audience, you can decide whether you just have a good night enjoying the music or do you want to go in a little bit deeper and explore the relationships happening in the world. Can you explain how that feels for you, as the writer?”
Anaïs Mitchell: “I’ve been living with this show for a really long time. I started it in my twenties and in those 20 years, the world has changed a lot. And I’ve grown older. So, I have identified with different characters of the show over time. At first, writing it, I really identified with Orpheus. I was right out of school, I was a young optimistic idealistic artist who wandered if I could make art that could change the world. Now that I’m a bit older, I can identify with the older couple more. And I’ve also lived through a couple of political eras and have seen that the themes poverty and wealth are always standing between people. Those things changed over the years and I think the songs can be linked to different political moments. That is the power of this mythology. It’s so ancient that it would always speak.”
Why We Build The Wall
Het tweede nummer dat Anaïs ten gehore bracht, was het nummer ‘Why We Build The Wall’. Dit nummer wordt in de musical gezongen door Hades, koning van de onderwereld. Anaïs schreef dit nummer al in 2006 en zoals ze zelf zegt: het nummer werd 10 jaar later bijna eng relevant, toen eventjes niet, en nu weer wel. Vul zelf maar in wat ze daarmee bedoelt. Of geniet gewoon van het nummer:
Madeleine van der Zwaan: “Another thing that strikes me, is the authenticity. There is something so pure in everything that happens in the show. Moreover, it is so special for us that we have granted the rights. It just premiered in West End this year. And already in the same year, we are working with the original crew from the US and UK to bring the continental premiere and have our own production here in The Netherlands. It is zo nice to work with the same creatives, because you understand their ‘language’ more and more and there is something so pure that is also coming from the authenticity from everyone creating this show: on and off stage. Do you recognize that?”
Anaïs Mitchell: “Yeah, in this show we are able to cast people who bring their full selves to the role. And that means that it’s different every time. Certainly, what is happening in London is very different from what is happening in New York. It always have been a diverse cast, but in London the accents also differ. Our Hermes has a Caribbean accent, our Orpheus is Scottish. The previous one was Irish and our Hades was American, which felt very relevant 😉 There is a real diversity of identity and culture and what people are bringing to the role. And it feels like the story can absorb all of that. So, I’m so excited to see what happens here!”
Way Down Hadestown
Anaïs speelde ook het nummer ‘Way Down Hadestown’ voor ons. Een toepasselijk liedje, omdat het Nederlandse musicalpubliek vanaf volgend jaar juni in eigen land ‘Way Down’ naar ‘Hadestown’ toe kan. Luister het nummer hieronder:
Madeleine van der Zwaan: “As you might know, we are an independent theatre. We are trying to make the right artistic choices and bringing that to an audience as wide as possible. And I feel that in the creative team, there are a lot of independent strong women! Can you tell a bit more about that?”
Anaïs Mitchell: “Yeah, it’s wild that this show has become as accessible as it has. The early versions of the show were from the wild woods of Vermont, you know, this small state where I am from. And the music world, and Rachel Chavkin, the director in New York, is really from downtown theatre. Pretty much everyone who worked on this show, comes from outside the theatre world. Michael Chorney, who is one of our orchestraters together with Todd Sickafoose, has never seen a Broadway show before he saw Hadestown, which he had orchestrated. It was like a lot of newcomers. And it’s true that our two lead producers in New York are both women, Dale Franzen and Mara Isaacs and they had never taken a show to Broadway before. It felt like a lot of outsider energy, a lot of maverick energy and definitely a lot of women. And it not even that we set out for that to happen, it just naturally evolved. I was looking for a director in New York and I saw Rachel Chavkin’s work before I even knew who it was. And I was like whoever that is, I need that person.”
Fans
Voor dit bijzondere event zijn ook een aantal fans van Hadestown uitgenodigd. Eén van hen stelde Anaïs de vraag: “There are a couple of versions of the show. Is there any part that is not part of the Broadway show you wish was still there?”
Anaïs Mitchell: “So, you are wondering if there parts that didn’t end up on Broadway that I miss? YES! There is a whole cutting room floor. Partly, I wrote a book about that because I wanted a home for all those pieces. But you must be in service of the storytelling and it’s such a collaborative art form. You can’t make a musical with all these different artists, you have to think of the visuals, the orchestrations, the sets, the props, everyone is working in service of the same thing. For sure, there are plenty of darlings or babies that I have to let go. And also, it’s still evolving. I changed some stuff for London because I was like I want to change some things, and I did. So, who knows what happens.”
Flowers
Een liedje dat de voorstelling wél heeft gehaald, is het nummer ‘Flowers’. Dit wordt in de voorstelling gezongen door Eurydice, wanneer zij in de onderwereld is, waarin ze zingt over spijt.
Madeleine van der Zwaan: “There are two things I find very strong of the story. One is that it is forever relevant. And two, there is always a bit of hope. For me, that’s a great reason to want to see the show again and again, because it’s the hope that makes you go on. Can we talk a little bit about your thoughts on that?”
Anaïs Mitchell: “If there is any kind of moral in Hadestown, which I think raises more questions than it provides questions really, but the moral has to do with Orpheus. He is a hero in our world. There are theatres named after him all over the world. And he is a hero and it’s not because he has succeeded in his mission, he actually failed. But it’s the fact that he tried to do this impossible thing, and that he had this impossible faith that we sort of celebrate. There is something about him as a character that I feel like embodies youth. Young people coming into the world with their fresh eyes, their fresh vision and their belief and faith that things could be different, things could be better. It’s like the springtime of the world and it happens yearly. Young people will come with their vision and their passion, and they will grow older, like we all do. And they will get kids, and jobs, and mortgages and they will see people elected that they don’t want to be elected. They will become, at some level, resigned to the way the world is. But the beauty is that there always is a young person coming up. And I think that’s the thing with Orpheus, you almost see him take that whole journey in Hadestown. By the time he gets to the end of the show, he has seen too much. But there will be someone else. And that is what that last song, ‘We Raise Our Cups’, is about. That new energy, the fresh eyes, that is always coming.”
We Raise Our Cups
Dat is ook het laatste nummer dat Anaïs voor ons zingt: ‘We Raise Our Cups’. Hoewel het een treurig liedje is, en Anaïs lachend vertelt dat ze 3x heeft geprobeerd het nummer te skippen, is het ook een liedje van hoop. Luister zelf maar:
Madeleine van der Zwaan: “It’s an old song and we got to tell it anyway. How do you feel about us telling the story in this ‘old lady’, Theater Carré? It’s actually the largest one, if you compare it to the theatres on West End and Broadway. How do you feel when you look around?”
Anaïs Mitchell: “I cannot wait! It’s big haha. And I love that it is round. It feels Greek in that way, very amphitheatrical. When the show started off-Broadway, we had a very round version of it. And it became more square as we sort of leveled it up for Broadway. The energy of the round space, it really feels like a community gathering space. And that is what the story is, a community gathering to tell an old story again and ideally learn something about themselves in the process.”
Meer over Hadestown
Hadestown zal vanaf juni 2025 te zien zijn in Theater Carré. Wij konden al niet wachten, maar na deze bijzondere ochtend zijn we helemáál benieuwd naar de Nederlandse versie van de musical. Meer informatie over de show én de kaartverkoop vind je hier!
Header: ©Theater Carré
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