Prophet Song has been nominated for the Nederlands Theater Festival
28 May 2026
We are proud to share that Prophet Song has been selected for the Nederlands Theater Festival 2026! Over the course of the theatre season, the Dutch Theatre Jury singles out the ten finest, most talked-about and most striking productions of the moment. It is an enormous compliment to our cast and crew and to director Mina Salehpour that our production is part of this selection.
The production premiered on 16 November 2025. Prophet Song can be seen during the Nederlands Theater Festival on 3 and 4 September at the Stadsschouwburg. Later in the theatre season, from 18 March to 4 April, the production returns to the Grote Zaal.
The jury on Prophet Song
"Prophet Song puts a painfully topical question to its audience: what if a far-right power takes over a Western democracy? In his Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song, author Paul Lynch depicts a parallel Ireland that has turned into a totalitarian state full of repression, chaos and a devastating civil war. For Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, director Mina Salehpour makes a harrowing, oppressive adaptation for the stage, in which fear and desperation tear human lives apart.
Protagonist Eilish has to hold her family together amid all the turmoil, but is no match for the evil of the fascist regime. Janni Goslinga plays her with restraint: tormented, frustrated and yet likeable too.
Fifty extras form a backdrop of mistrustful, rebellious or menacing citizens and add to the bleak atmosphere. Mark Van Denesse's beautiful lighting design shrouds much of the stage in darkness, just as the characters' lives are increasingly surrounded by the dark.
Prophet Song may appear to be about a dystopia, but what Salehpour depicts is in fact the reality of the many people currently living under oppression. And perhaps she is also showing the future of a country such as ours, in which the far right is gaining ever more ground."
Congratulations to all the other nominees!
We congratulate all the companies whose productions have been selected for the Nederlands Theater Festival!
The Nederlands Theater Festival runs from 3 to 13 September. On 13 September the festival closes, as tradition dictates, with the Gala van het Nederlands Theater at Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam.
