Content

Performance information

Performance information

How Anansi freed the stories of the world

Duration
Approx. 75 minutes, without interval

The performance is sung in a mix of Dutch, English, and other languages, with surtitles in Dutch and English.

Co-commission and co-production Dutch National Ballet and Dutch National Opera

Music
Neo Muyanga
Libretto
Maarten van Hinte
Musical direction
Lochlan Brown
Stage director
Kenza Koutchoukali
Choreography
Shailesh Bahoran
Set and Costume Design
Dieuweke van Reij
Lighting Design
Mike den Ottolander
Sound Design
Nina Kraszewska
Dramaturgy
Maarten van Hinte
Wout van Tongeren
Naomi Teekens
Assistant Director
Maarten van Grootel
Ballet Master
Michele Jimenez
Rehearsal Pianists
Luba Podgayskaya
Irina Sisoyev

Anansi 
Thando Mjandana 
Makuba 
Katia Ledoux 
Tigri 
Frederik Bergman 
Snake 
Martin Mkhize 
Sisa Leopard 
Carla Nahadi Babelegoto 
Princess Vixen 
Claron McFadden 
Black-and-yellow Hornets 
Sabra El Bahri Khatri
Liza Lozica
Vanel Djoko 

Dancers Alexander Álvarez Silvestre*, Jenson Blight*, Rosa Cabrera Nuesi*, Joley Groeizaam, Patrick Karijowidjojo, Ella Kolpakov*, Keshaw Manna, Léa Sauvignon*, Amber Skaggs*, Kiddy Talany, Darius-Oriol Tamosi*, Lucinda Wessels

* Dancers Junior Company

Musicians  Toon Durville (oboe)*, Remko Edelaar (bassoon)*, Fokke van Heel (horn)*, Anna Magdalena den Herder (violal)*, Carlo Hoop (Afro-Surinamese percussion), Jan Bastiaan Neven (cello)*, Theun van Nieuwburg (timpani)*, Laura Oomens (second violin)*, Gestow Shaidon Power aka Abstract (DJ), Saskia Rekké (harp)*, Joaquín Clemente Riera (doublebass)*, Nando Russo (percussion)*, Hanspeter Spannring (flute)*, Ellen Vergunst (piccolo)*, Bartosz Woroch (first violin)* 

* Musicians Netherlands Chamber Orchestra 

Musical accompaniment  Netherlands Chamber Orchestra conducted by Lochlan Brown

Production team

Language Coach
Ginette Puylaert
Stage management
Emma Eberlijn
Merel Francissen
Julia van Berkel
Zoe Pauel
Artistic planning
Sonja Heyl
Set supervision
Mark van Trigt
Costume supervision
Claire Nicolas
Master carpenter
Jop van den Berg
Lighting manager
Ianthe van der Hoek
Props crewmen 
Jolanda Borjeson
Senior dresser
Jenny Henger
Senior make-up artist
Carlijn Spee
Sound engineers
Leonardo Santos
David te Marvelde
Surtitles director
Eveline Karssen
Surtitles operator
Maxim Paulissen
Senior music librarian
Rudolf Weges
Orchestra inspector 
Sarah Page
Production manager 
Nicky Cammaert

Illustratie
Tigri: illustration by Brian Elstak
The story

Welcome to Anansi

Anansi the spider is a survivor. A cunning one. He knows how to weave every situation to his own advantage — though sometimes he gets tangled in his own web of tricks.

The story

Anansi the spider is a survivor. A cunning one. He knows how to weave every situation to his own advantage — though sometimes he gets tangled in his own web of tricks.

And Anansi loves stories. When he discovers that the mighty Tigri has locked away all the stories of the world in his palace, he can’t just stand by. He must set them free, even if it means attempting the most dangerous trick he has ever tried.

Tigri is willing to make a deal. Anansi will get the stories if he can capture the creatures that Tigri has never been able to control: a giant serpent, a swarm of black and yellow hornets, Tigri’s rebellious sister Sisa Leopard, and the mysterious Princess Vixen.

Anansi accepts the challenge. But when he tells his wife Makuba about the trick he plans to play on Tigri, she is unimpressed: it seems more like Anansi has been ensnared by Tigri with an impossible task.

Will Anansi and Makuba still find a way to set the stories free?

Kanariekooitjes
Illustration by Brian Elstak

A tori is for everyone

A book is a book is a book. It is what it is, and it stays what it is. If you place them side by side or stack them on top of each other, you can build a wall. Or a house. Or even a palace. It is what it is, and it stays what it is. A tori is not a book: it is a story that you hear and pass on.

A tori is for everyone

Text: Maarten van Hinte 

A book is a book is a book. It is what it is, and it stays what it is. If you place them side by side or stack them on top of each other, you can build a wall. Or a house. Or even a palace. It is what it is, and it stays what it is.

A tori is not a book: it is a story that you hear and pass on. You cannot build walls with a tori, because it never stays in one place. When it suddenly appears in the corner of your room, you could try to smack it with your slipper. Yet it will simply reappear in another corner, like a cockroach or a spider. Just like a cockroach, a spider, or a grain of rice in your hair, it travels with you unnoticed.

A tori belongs to everyone. You can start it, someone else can continue it, and a third person can finish it. Or not.

This is a tori. And I will begin:

Anansi boodschapper tussen mensen en Goden
Illustration by Brian Elstak

They call me B’Anansi. Anansi means "spider" in Akan. That is a language from West Africa, where Ghana is now located. There, the spider is a messenger between humans and the gods. The spider travels on its web from earth to heaven and back again. Sometimes Anansi the spider tells the truth, and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he does good. Sometimes he doesn’t.

Five hundred years ago, the heavens were closed for some Akan people. And not just for them. Also for Yoruba people, Igbo people, Fulani people, Wolof people — for many people from Africa. Europeans arrived with ships to capture and trade them. They were shipped to a world that Europeans called "new" because they were the new rulers there. The captives forced aboard were people; those who survived the crossing were seen as livestock. At least, by the Europeans. Anansi traveled with them.

This is how the spider and his stories came ashore in what is now Suriname, Guyana, Jamaica, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, and many other places in the "new" world. But he was no longer a messenger of the gods, for the heavens were closed. He became a messenger of African people who wanted to reopen the heavens. His tori’s (stories) kept the lid slightly open. They became tales of resistance and defiance.

Anansi has not changed. He is still both good and bad, sometimes trustworthy and sometimes not — he is just like people. But his tori’s have changed. They are no longer about gods but about humans. Good people, bad people, and hustlers — those who always find new ways to survive. People who are just like Anansi.

This text is the beginning of the book Hoe Anansi de verhalen van de wereld bevrijdde, written by Maarten van Hinte in Dutch based on his libretto for this performance and illustrated by Brian Elstak. The book is available at any bookstore and can be purchased for €17.50 in the foyer of our theater.

Boek Anansi
Book: Maarten van Hinte - Hoe Anansi de verhalen van de wereld bevrijdde
Anansi boek
Book by Maarten van Hinte

Hoe Anansie de verhalen van de wereld bevrijdde

The book How Anansi Freed the Stories of the World, written by Maarten van Hinte - based on his libretto for this performance - and illustrated by Brian Elstak, is available at any bookstore and can be purchased for €17.50 in the foyer of Dutch National Opera & Ballet.