speeltheater show

Reviews — Nicky somewhere else

THEATER REVIEW NEW YORK TIMES May 14 1998
Learning About a Dead Twin and Affirming Life

NICKY, SOMEWHERE ELSE, New Victory Theatre, New York
By Saskia Janse, directed by Onny Huisink with: Marc-Marie Huijbregts, Saskia Janse, Michel Marang and Jitka Lejdarová.

Death may seem an unlikely subject for children’s theater, especially when the subject is the death of a sibling, and more particularly, a twin. But a willingness to confront that profound loss is what makes “Nicky, Somewhere Else” something special. And the ability to go about thatdaunting task with humor, creativity, immense charm and touching sensitivity is what makes so worthwhile a visit to the New Victory Theater for Speeltheater Holland’s affirmation of life in the face of death. Speeltheater Holland, founded in 1976 by Saskia Janse and Onny Huisink and based in Edam, the Netherlands, employs puppets and live actors as it tells the story of Nicky (a puppet), who discovers one day from a photograph that he has a brother, Noel. But Noel is somewhere else. And Nicky, accompanied by his lanky pet toy, Rabbit, decides to pay him a visit. The action of the inventive “Nicky Somewhere Else” unfolds mainly in the heavens, actually a low raked platform where four lively end capricious angels control the puppets, argue among themselves, play music, sing, create mischief and pop in and out of trap doors opened with the aid of feather-winged plumbers’ plungers, which are always good for a laugh. Nicky ‘s journey takes him and Rabbit across rivers, up high mountains where he meets his dead grandfather and finally to a meeting with Noel that sets them and the angels bounding joyously in a blanket of clouds before Nicky confronts a question that pits life against death. The talented humane onstage as the angels and in other roles that include not only Nicky end Noel but also Rabbit, Santa Claus and various adults, are Marc-Marie Huijbregts as Lucy, Ms. Janse as Micha, Michel Marang as the clarinet-playing Muriel end Jitka Lejdarová as Gabber “Nicky, Somewhere Else,” which lasts an hour end is intended for audiences 6 and older, plays for only five more performances, tomorrow through Sunday.

© Lawrence van Gelder
For review (PDF) NEW YORK TIMES click here

Reviews from Seattle:

'Nicky' gives serious topic a heavenly touch

By Leslie Holdcroft
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER Tuesday, March 4, 2003
Dance, feathered wings, life-size puppets, sign language and live music create a sparkling tour through the ethereal in Seattle Children's Theatre's "Nicky Somewhere Else." Little Nicky discovers his twin brother, Noel, died at birth. Curious, he writes his brother an introductory letter, which the angels answer with: "Just imagine. You can find me. Signed, Noel, Somewhere Else." The play weaves the audience in and out of Somewhere Else, a beautiful land filled with mountains, rivers, spacious skies and raucous angels. The boys do meet, and then learn they must part again. Sounds simple? It is. But in the hands of director Onny Huisink and playwright Saskia Janse, "Nicky" travels the death issue with deep tenderness and cloud-spun beauty. The little puppet -- beautiful work by Janse -- gamely works through his loss, longing and curiosity with an effervescent spirit. Angels Jason Collins, Sarah Harlett, Mara Hased, Billy Seago and Candace Vance provide athletic dance and movement. Hased gets the best role: Disapproving, she tries to thwart Nicky's adventure and she plays the frump well. Vance is funky on a clarinet trimmed with angel wings. The fine journey turns sour with an overlong visit from a duck, the improbable appearance of Santa Claus and the crowd-rousing addition of a Britney Spears number. Lights from Michael Wellborn favor a cool, sky-hued palette, and sound from Chris Walker is jaunty -- just the thing for a child's version of trekking through heaven. The eventual reuniting of Nicky and Noel is predictably both tender and awkward. No real revelations here, just meat-and-potatoes fun at seeing each other again. The addition of American Sign Language and Russian Sign Language works in this kinetic playground of heavenly ideas, bringing it alive with six languages -- Dutch, ASL, Russian Sign Language, English, music and dance. All in all, "Nicky" handles the difficult issue of death with great success.

'Nicky' is serious silliness with a heavenly touch

By Leah B. Green
Special to The Seattle Times
Passed away. Kicked the bucket. Gone to the great beyond. All are clever ways of skirting the D word, a phenomenon explored in "Nicky Somewhere Else," a collaboration of Seattle Children's Theatre with Speeltheater Holland. They make a comedy of it as well, mixing a bag of silly tricks with these disturbing realities. In the arena of silly tricks, writer-director collaborators Saskia Janse and Onny Huisink (also responsible for SCT's "Stellaluna") bring us playful angels that control the sky with winged plungers and childish irreverence. In the arena of disturbing realities, they bring us death, separation and a Britney Spears dance break. That the solemnities of the afterlife might coexist with the music of Ms. Spears illustrates precisely the grab-bag oeuvre of "Nicky Somewhere Else." Family drama and physical comedy, a vision quest and a puppet show, "Nicky" is serious silliness. "Somewhere Else" refers to that clever adult place invented to explain death to children — when young Nicky finds a picture of a twin brother he never knew, his mother uses the phrase to explain the passing. Brother Noel has gone, er, "somewhere else." Nothing better than ambiguity to pique a child's curiosity. With the assistance of eager angels and his own stuffed rabbit, Nicky sets off on a journey to reunite with his lost other half. Utilizing their plungers to navigate the modular mosaic of heaven (under the imaginative realization of Huisink), the angels usher Nicky to Noel's heavenly hideout, passing Santa and Grandpa along the way. Angels here are a powerful, if bumbling, lot. Especially since all the humans are portrayed by puppets, given life at the hands of the ensemble angel cast — not a stunning endorsement for free will, but an effective theatrical device nonetheless. In this heaven, language barriers are blurred — as many as six different languages are utilized throughout the production (including the esoteric "duck sign language"). Ducks aside, American Sign Language plays a large role in "Nicky," with deaf actor Billy Seago giving a fluid performance as both angel and sign interpreter. Seago, by far the most compelling presence on the stage, effectively plays all the characters as well as his own — a sort of angelic Everyman. Bolstered by the jazzy musical score of Michel Marang, "Nicky Somewhere Else" journeys imaginatively through Nicky's initial ignorance to a final acceptance of where "somewhere else" is. Sounds like heady fare for kids, and the very young are likely to spend more time awed at the puppets and the underground trampoline than listening to the message play that occurs simultaneously. Chances are, the intentions of the play are best geared toward kids who already have some inkling or experience with "somewhere else." Children revel in being able to say — "Hey, I already knew that" — and "Nicky Somewhere Else" sets up this punch line with suggestive didacticism and healing laughter.

	Reviews — Nicky somewhere else THEATER REVIEW NEW YORK TIMES May 14 1998 Learning About a Dead Twin and Affirming Life NICKY, SOMEWHERE ELSE, New Victory Theatre, New York By Saskia Janse, directed by Onny Huisink with: Marc-Marie Huijbregts, Saskia Janse, Michel Marang and Jitka Lejdarová. Death may seem an unlikely subject for children’s theater, especially when the subject is the death of a sibling, and more particularly, a twin. But a willingness to confront that profound loss is what makes “Nicky, Somewhere Else” something special. And the ability to go about thatdaunting task with humor, creativity, immense charm and touching sensitivity is what makes so worthwhile a visit to the New Victory Theater for Speeltheater Holland’s affirmation of life in the face of death. Speeltheater Holland, founded in 1976 by Saskia Janse and Onny Huisink and based in Edam, the Netherlands, employs puppets and live actors as it tells the story of Nicky (a puppet), who discovers one day from a photograph that he has a brother, Noel. But Noel is somewhere else. And Nicky, accompanied by his lanky pet toy, Rabbit, decides to pay him a visit. The action of the inventive “Nicky Somewhere Else” unfolds mainly in the heavens, actually a low raked platform where four lively end capricious angels control the puppets, argue among themselves, play music, sing, create mischief and pop in and out of trap doors opened with the aid of feather-winged plumbers’ plungers, which are always good for a laugh. Nicky ‘s journey takes him and Rabbit across rivers, up high mountains where he meets his dead grandfather and finally to a meeting with Noel that sets them and the angels bounding joyously in a blanket of clouds before Nicky confronts a question that pits life against death. The talented humane onstage as the angels and in other roles that include not only Nicky end Noel but also Rabbit, Santa Claus and various adults, are Marc-Marie Huijbregts as Lucy, Ms. Janse as Micha, Michel Marang as the clarinet-playing Muriel end Jitka Lejdarová as Gabber “Nicky, Somewhere Else,” which lasts an hour end is intended for audiences 6 and older, plays for only five more performances, tomorrow through Sunday. © Lawrence van Gelder For review (PDF) NEW YORK TIMES click here Reviews from Seattle: 'Nicky' gives serious topic a heavenly touch By Leslie Holdcroft SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER Tuesday, March 4, 2003 Dance, feathered wings, life-size puppets, sign language and live music create a sparkling tour through the ethereal in Seattle Children's Theatre's "Nicky Somewhere Else." Little Nicky discovers his twin brother, Noel, died at birth. Curious, he writes his brother an introductory letter, which the angels answer with: "Just imagine. You can find me. Signed, Noel, Somewhere Else." The play weaves the audience in and out of Somewhere Else, a beautiful land filled with mountains, rivers, spacious skies and raucous angels. The boys do meet, and then learn they must part again. Sounds simple? It is. But in the hands of director Onny Huisink and playwright Saskia Janse, "Nicky" travels the death issue with deep tenderness and cloud-spun beauty. The little puppet -- beautiful work by Janse -- gamely works through his loss, longing and curiosity with an effervescent spirit. Angels Jason Collins, Sarah Harlett, Mara Hased, Billy Seago and Candace Vance provide athletic dance and movement. Hased gets the best role: Disapproving, she tries to thwart Nicky's adventure and she plays the frump well. Vance is funky on a clarinet trimmed with angel wings. The fine journey turns sour with an overlong visit from a duck, the improbable appearance of Santa Claus and the crowd-rousing addition of a Britney Spears number. Lights from Michael Wellborn favor a cool, sky-hued palette, and sound from Chris Walker is jaunty -- just the thing for a child's version of trekking through heaven. The eventual reuniting of Nicky and Noel is predictably both tender and awkward. No real revelations here, just meat-and-potatoes fun at seeing each other again. The addition of American Sign Language and Russian Sign Language works in this kinetic playground of heavenly ideas, bringing it alive with six languages -- Dutch, ASL, Russian Sign Language, English, music and dance. All in all, "Nicky" handles the difficult issue of death with great success. 'Nicky' is serious silliness with a heavenly touch By Leah B. Green Special to The Seattle Times Passed away. Kicked the bucket. Gone to the great beyond. All are clever ways of skirting the D word, a phenomenon explored in "Nicky Somewhere Else," a collaboration of Seattle Children's Theatre with Speeltheater Holland. They make a comedy of it as well, mixing a bag of silly tricks with these disturbing realities. In the arena of silly tricks, writer-director collaborators Saskia Janse and Onny Huisink (also responsible for SCT's "Stellaluna") bring us playful angels that control the sky with winged plungers and childish irreverence. In the arena of disturbing realities, they bring us death, separation and a Britney Spears dance break. That the solemnities of the afterlife might coexist with the music of Ms. Spears illustrates precisely the grab-bag oeuvre of "Nicky Somewhere Else." Family drama and physical comedy, a vision quest and a puppet show, "Nicky" is serious silliness. "Somewhere Else" refers to that clever adult place invented to explain death to children — when young Nicky finds a picture of a twin brother he never knew, his mother uses the phrase to explain the passing. Brother Noel has gone, er, "somewhere else." Nothing better than ambiguity to pique a child's curiosity. With the assistance of eager angels and his own stuffed rabbit, Nicky sets off on a journey to reunite with his lost other half. Utilizing their plungers to navigate the modular mosaic of heaven (under the imaginative realization of Huisink), the angels usher Nicky to Noel's heavenly hideout, passing Santa and Grandpa along the way. Angels here are a powerful, if bumbling, lot. Especially since all the humans are portrayed by puppets, given life at the hands of the ensemble angel cast — not a stunning endorsement for free will, but an effective theatrical device nonetheless. In this heaven, language barriers are blurred — as many as six different languages are utilized throughout the production (including the esoteric "duck sign language"). Ducks aside, American Sign Language plays a large role in "Nicky," with deaf actor Billy Seago giving a fluid performance as both angel and sign interpreter. Seago, by far the most compelling presence on the stage, effectively plays all the characters as well as his own — a sort of angelic Everyman. Bolstered by the jazzy musical score of Michel Marang, "Nicky Somewhere Else" journeys imaginatively through Nicky's initial ignorance to a final acceptance of where "somewhere else" is. Sounds like heady fare for kids, and the very young are likely to spend more time awed at the puppets and the underground trampoline than listening to the message play that occurs simultaneously. Chances are, the intentions of the play are best geared toward kids who already have some inkling or experience with "somewhere else." Children revel in being able to say — "Hey, I already knew that" — and "Nicky Somewhere Else" sets up this punch line with suggestive didacticism and healing laughter.