And the Dioraphta award goes to…

There were a few awards to hand out at the Fringe party.

Firstly, well done to all you artists who put yourselves out there, who are willing to subject your work to the public gaze. You guys rock. Seriously. All of you.

Here’s the awards citations as they were read, only slightly edited for easier reading.

This year the jury was impressed by the overall quality of the performances at the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, with a number of productions being hotly debated at jury meetings. There were arguments. Words were traded.

The selection of the top three in particular, needed a few cigarette breaks.

But we’re still friends.

Given the high standard and innovative approach brought to the stage in many of the works, there are two honourable mentions due.
The musical skill, energy, singing ability and reframing of technology we saw at Club Club Gewalt left audiences energised and ready to party. This group has great potential to make their mark on the theatre landscape, and have another two years to do so at the Amsterdam Fringe. Yay for Club Gewalt.

The other honourable mention, which is only mentioned second due to alphabetical protocol, made great use of a specific location and had a fascinating impact on their immediate environment. It would be great for these talented artists to continue working together and we look forward to what Als de Beren Komen and Inge Wannet will produce next. Yay for Klapvee.

Well done guys.

We move on to the Dioraphta awards for Amsterdam Fringe 2015.
We’ll start with the winner of the Amsterdam Fringe Bronze award.

Buuut…

Hang on. There is not one, there are two bronze winners.

To reverse the alphabetical order – because we’re fringe – we’ll start with the mesmerizing, beautifully produced performance that provides different views of what a relationship can be, that shifts perspectives by shifting our view on what is alive and what is not, who is charge of whom? Some called it sublime, some called it surreal, some called it superb. And some didn’t get it. We’re talking about ……Watching by Ester Natzijl.

So the other bronze award goes to a very daring, sometimes nasty, sometimes funny, well executed work that is brutally honest. The peformers get weird, they get awkward. It is touchy, personal, contemporary and real. To quote one jury member, it is ‘Beetje Plien en Bianca meets Smack the pony’. We’re talking about… Schaamstreken by Gestampte meisjes.

Aaaaannd, the Amsterdam Fringe Silver Award goes to a performance that introduces us to a new, and uncommon realm of experience.
It is a performance that is unsettling and uncertain, containing a nervous energy that originates from an intensely personal experience. We are invited into a world that is unfamiliar, yet right next to us. It is a work that brings reality back to the theatre and reintroduces the necessity for art to not only examine the personal, but also reflect on broader society.

It provides an unusual delivery that has a twist at the end which takes you completely by surprise as it shows how art, and craft, can transform hate and struggle into love and creativity.

The Silver Award winner is Quinsy Gario with: ‘Hoe doe je aangifte tegen 770 mensen?’

So, dreamers, lovers, dancers and doers, dolphin ladies and ladyguys, we move on to the winner of the Dioraphta awards.

At the 2015 Amsterdam Fringe is a group of fearless thinkers who expose our common madness, our willingness to rush headlong into the fray without heeding the outcome.

This exceptional concert combines (non) music and theatrical performance to provide an hour-long immersion that takes us through the initial manifesto of an ism and drives it to its natural conclusion.
They are not cute, they don’t even try to be nice.
They are loud, they are brash, they take no prisoners.
They brought a goldfish, and they’re on a mission to show us that we have a problem, and it’s only gonna get worse.
They are discordant jazz for the machine age.

They are the Futurists.

Paaaarrrrrrty! Recover. Create. Repeat.