As part of the celebration and commemoration of 80 years of Liberation, Stichting Valreep, theatre by and from Zeeland, in cooperation with Stichting Oorlogsjaren in Vlissingen, is organising the theatre project ‘Choose or split’. It consists of two performances, some of which will be performed in the ‘free’ circuit, for adults. In addition, both productions will be offered, perhaps slightly adapted, to secondary schools in Zeeland. The plays will be performed per class, in the classroom, within one lesson hour, for upper secondary school pupils. The play will be followed by a discussion with the pupils.
The legacy
Even now, and World War II is some 80 years behind us, those five years of occupation creep into our lives, both solicited and unsolicited. All but a few of the fathers and mothers of those days have passed away, but their children and grandchildren are still alive. Even those who ended up on the dark side because their parents decided to do so.
Yes, including parents from Vlissingen.
Those children were certainly not to blame. But they did suffer. Unimaginable suffering. Not everyone was liberated after the war.
The Legacy is performed by three actors: a journalist is assigned to write an article about a person of interest from Vlissingen. In her research, she also comes across the son of the shoemaker from Walstraat, a man who emerges as an NSB mayor of the most fanatical kind in the municipality of Ede during the Second World War. Even more important for the story is the introduction to this mayor’s daughter-in-law. This young woman is herself the daughter of an NSB supporter (working at the notorious Schalkhaar police training battalion) and more or less forced to marry ‘into the same nest’. The choice made by her parents(-in-law) made her life mercilessly unhappy and tragic, hence The Legacy.
The characters in the play are based on existing people: Theodorus Van Dierendonck and his daughter-in-law Marjolijn Daams.
Actors: Wilma Selen, Anneke Goedhart, Leonard van den Berge
Duration: 55 minutes
The Defence
At the beginning of the Second World War, Hendrik Wouter Van Tijen is appointed director of the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde in Vlissingen. He is not keen on the position, but refusing is not an option.
The Germans have work for De Schelde. All workers depend on this shipyard, but in fact that applies to the whole of Walcheren: small businesses, smallholders; almost everyone is tied to De Schelde.
In The Defence, the director speaks out.
Performance: Mels Hoogenboom
Duration: 50 minutes
The Hurgronje Family Fund made a financial contribution to the realisation of this project.
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