What makes someone Dutch?
Can you be Dutch if you weren’t born in the Netherlands? If not, what are you then, if your country of birth no longer exists?
Free in Amsterdam
Ksenia was born in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Her father is Russian, from St. Petersburg; her mother is a Jewish Ukrainian. At the age of 17, Ksenia fled the Soviet Union. Through aid organizations, she ended up in Israel. From there, she traveled to Europe. In 1994, she arrived in Amsterdam after hitchhiking. There, she felt truly free.
Heritage not to be discussed
Years later she’s on national radio. She talks for an hour about her plays. Suddenly, the journalist confronts her with an identity she had deliberately forgotten. She’s startled and hears her grandmother in her mind urging her to deny it. That Jewish heritage was never discussed, not even in the Netherlands …
Integrating Is harder than you think
In this musical performance, Ksenia takes you on a journey from the Ukrainian beet soup borscht to bread with peanut butter by the North Sea. In a playful and humorous way, she sets out in search of her identity. The whole world has an opinion about her, but she herself is also feeling all sorts of things. On top of that, she wants to integrate. That turns out to be harder than expected. And learning Dutch isn’t exactly a walk in the park either. Ksenia loves the Netherlands, but is that enough to be Dutch? And does she even want that?
Show made for schools, two versions:
Age-indication: 9+
- Language: Dutch, part of songs in Yiddish.
- Duration: 40 minutes
- Themes: identity, assimilation, integration, Eastern European culture, Jewish culture, Soviet-Union, antisemitism.
Age-indication: 15+
- Language: Dutch, part of songs in Yiddish.
- Duration: 60-75 minutes
- Themes: identity, assimilation, integration, Eastern European culture, Jewish culture, antisemitism, World War Two, Sovjet-Union.