Nominations for the BNG Bank Theatre Award for the 2023–2024 season announced

The BNG Theatre Award 2024 will be awarded to the best performance of the 2023/2024 season by an emerging theatre maker. The winner will receive €45.000 as a contribution towards a new performance or the revival of the winning performance. The prize will be awarded at the BNG Theatre Afternoon on Friday 6 September during the Dutch Theatre Festival 2024 at Theater Bellevue in Amsterdam. Here, the makers will present themselves and their work to the public and the sector, and the BNG Theatre Award 2024 will be awarded to the winner by a representative of the BNG Culture Fund. Four of the five nominated performances can be seen during the Dutch Theatre Festival from 5 to 15 September. The programme will be announced on 2 July, when ticket sales will also start via the website nederlandstheaterfestival.nl.

Nominated for the BNG Bank Theatre Award 2024 are:

Sue-Ann Bel and Hali Neto - Let's Go Barbie | Maas theatre and dance

From the jury report: 'With Let's Go Barbie, Sue-Ann Bel and Hali Neto have created an impressive performance that captivates both young and old. Complex themes such as freedom and conformity are woven into the performance in a seemingly effortless way. The creators succeed in showing how toys can be both a straitjacket and a source of freedom. The combination of playful elements and a serious undertone creates a dynamic experience that really gets the audience thinking. With Let's Go Barbie, Sue-Ann Bel and Hali Neto show that they are ready for more.'

Princess Isatu Hassan Bangura - Great Apes of the West Coast | NTGent

From the jury report: 'With Great Apes of the West Coast, Princess Isatu Hassan Bangura shares both a deeply personal story and a sharp reflection on the Western notion of the “self”. Growing up in Sierra Leone with experiences of starting over, letting go and remembering forms the core of a profound confrontation that caused her displacement. Princess switches rapidly between language, hypnotic movement, powerful masquerade and even a bit of rap, sweeping her audience from one emotion to the next. Great Apes of the West Coast is a strong statement, delivered by a powerful voice within the contemporary artistic landscape.'

Kim Karssen - We're all alone in this together | Frascati Productions

From the jury report: 'With We're all alone in this together, Kim Karssen has created a virtuoso, sensitive, important and confrontational must-see performance that exposes how transgressive behaviour often manifests itself insidiously, but destroys at lightning speed. It's just like real life, with the difference that here we are watching two brilliant clowns: Kim Karssen and Elias De Bruyne. It takes courage to tackle this theme, and the result testifies to a deep insight into human behaviour and its fallibility. The discovery of two clowns as tragicomic figures par excellence, who act in spite of themselves, is brilliant.'

Sunni Lamin Barrow | A Fist of Tongues | Hollandse Luchten

From the jury report: 'In A Fist of Tongues, spoken word artist Sunni Lamin Barrow tells the story of his origins in a disarming way. He provides insight into what it is like to always be the outsider in a certain way. By bringing poetry to the stage in a montage performance, he steps out of his comfort zone as a spoken word artist and tries his hand at acting for the first time. The naturalness and ease with which he takes to the stage would make you think this is not his first theatre performance. Sunni Lamin Barrow is a performer who makes an immediate impact.'

Plankton | Er rent een berg voorbij (A mountain runs by) | Feikes Huis, Festival Cement, Plan B, Stip Producties

From the jury report: 'Er rent een berg voorbij by Plankton, the collective of Sonja van Ojen and Hendrik Kegels, stood out this season because of its original concept and the perfectly executed consistency of the idea. Central to the performance is the history of the earth, designed from cardboard panels, in which humans play only a very small role with major consequences. With this performance, this young object theatre collective continues to build on its unique signature: object theatre in which the leading role is reserved for the things around us rather than for humans. This makes them an important influence in the further development of object theatre.'

The BNG Theatre Award jury for 2024 consists of:

Abdelhadi Baaddi, Head of Creative Technology InnovationLAB; Leonie Clement, Artistic Director of Festival Cement; Richard Kofi, programmer at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam; Amira Al Rawi, D&I in Cultural Policy, Dance Theatre, Talent Development, Cultural Participation; and Dwayne Toemere, Artistic Director of Mime Training ATD.

BNG Theatre Award

The BNG Theatre Award was created to stimulate emerging theatre talent and, with a prize of 45,000 euros, is the largest theatre prize in the Netherlands. The winner can use the prize money to reprise the winning performance for a tour of Dutch theatres and/or invest in a new production. The BNG Culture Fund has opted for an active approach to promoting new talent. The BNG Theatre Award aims to serve as a springboard for the most promising theatre makers, who will receive extra attention at the Dutch Theatre Festival. All new theatre makers who are touring the Netherlands with a production can be nominated for the prize by surprise.