During his show Uit de klauwen, cabaret artist Patrick Nederkoorn howls like a grey wolf himself. Photo: Jaap Reedijk
Living in a forest surrounded by grey wolves has its drawbacks, as cabaret artist Patrick Nederkoorn discovers.
Hit is just under 8 kilometres by bike from the theatre in Arnhem to cabaret artist Patrick Nederkoorn’s new home. So the location – a former military barracks close to the entrance of the Hoge Veluwe – will be familiar to many in the audience. Though most Arnhem residents are unlikely to be quite as literally surrounded by nature as Nederkoorn. How that sense of being surrounded gradually comes to feel like being surrounded by danger is what Nederkoorn describes in his show Uit de klauwen. Sometimes hilariously, sometimes with piercing insight. The cabaret artist considers himself a nature lover, but when a grey wolf dropping turns up on his doorstep, nature suddenly feels very close indeed. The grey wolf is at the heart of this show – as that dropping attests, Nederkoorn has moved right into the middle of wolf territory. It makes him realise that even those who support the grey wolf may be somewhat naïve. The show reaches a riotous climax when Nederkoorn takes five neighbourhood children to an activist exhibition at the Museonder, portraying the grey wolf as a bloodthirsty monster. The journey home by cargo bike, sung to the tune of Drs. P.’s death ride, is tremendously funny. All the children meet their fate and are devoured by grey wolves. ‘Wolves here, wolves there, children’s hair everywhere. Wolves here, wolves there, it’s like an abattoir in here.’
Set design
And so the show grows ever more absurdist. Scenes begin with a concrete situation and then spiral completely out of hand – or out of the claws. Throughout, Nederkoorn plays beautifully on what imagination does to our emotions, something theatre is of course uniquely suited to. The image of the wolf as a killing machine in the museum gives rise to a death ride. All of this unfolds against a stunning set of fabric panels printed with tree bark, which the lighting transforms alternately into a beautiful or a menacing forest.
Meanwhile, danger lurks from other directions too. The increasing volume of military exercises on the Veluwe brings home to Nederkoorn in concrete terms how the Netherlands is preparing for war. A lovely song describes how Nederkoorn’s young son waves at a regiment of soldiers, while the father imagines his boy eventually becoming a soldier himself: ‘that’s how it goes, your own flesh and blood, lost to the army with a wave’.
Parallels
In a show about a grand theme – the relationship between humans and nature – Nederkoorn weaves in his personal life, drawing beautiful parallels. His mother’s illness stirs a fear of death, but also breathes new life into his bonds with his family. He compares this to the way an ecosystem rebounds with the arrival of the grey wolf: deer suddenly moving far more, their hooves giving vegetation a boost.
The desire for constant control turns out to be neither achievable nor meaningful – in life as in nature. The show ends in a scene that has spiralled out of control, where imagination takes over and Nederkoorn, in the manner of Reynard the red fox, is brought to justice by all the animals. And it closes with a beautiful song, in which the cabaret artist concludes: ‘but what a profound realisation, so close to my final hour, I discover what I am – simply nature’.
UIT DE KLAUWEN
Patrick Nederkoorn, pianist and composer: Guido van de Meent
on tour at theatres across the country until 16 May