"De Tijdgeest" - smashing success in the Hague

Time always goes faster when you're busy, so it really shouldn't be a surprise how short the production day of "De Tijdgeest" seemed.

Nevertheless, both cast and crew were sort of standing around outside the theater clutching various drinks at six o'clock after the final performance, and there were quite a few puzzled exclamations at the fact that it was, in fact, six o'clock already.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I arrived at the theater at 10 in the morning. Technically, I was supposed to be front-of-house, but I've done a fair few of these production days, and experience has taught me that it never really works out like that...

So I decided to get there a little early to get the lay of the land, also because I hadn't actually been inside the Regentes since 2008.

The entire team was there right at the point where I knew where to find everything, and thus I accompanied two packs of dancers - one professional, one kick-ass young talent - to their warming up.

There, I learned a very valuable lesson: there's nothing better than sitting on your arse next to a blazing radiator while you watch a group of people getting all worked up and tired. Especially if you yourself are not particularly interested in having to move around a lot.

It was glorious.

Then, we had the run-through, with all the calamities one might expect: equipment functioning in various and interesting ways, tearing trousers, missing trousers, missing dancers and a pair of shoes that needed a screwdriver to fix them were, I believe, the start of the list.

Then about three minutes for lunch, and then on to the general rehearsal, which I only saw the second half of because a great variety of items suddenly needed to be procured, then another half an hour, and then final performance, which went by in a rush of adrenaline.

And then it was six.

We collectively fell over at around eight. That's the problem with days like these - right when you finish, you get this "invincible" sort of feeling. The kind that makes you say things like "yeah, it's a great idea to run a marathon tomorrow morning". And then you sit down, and that's that, really.

But the show went on, and it was fantastic - footage and photos will follow on art-generation.net - and that's the important thing.

Those few extra wrinkles are totally worth it!