Yemandja

Close
Holland Festival

Yemandja

Angelique Kidjo

Shows

Sorry, there are currently no available shows.
Yemandja
Angelique Kidjo
1st rank € 48 / 2nd rank € 43 / 3rd rank € 35 / 4th rank € 30

Breathtaking musical theatre about love, betrayal and the injustices of slavery

Drawing inspiration from her ancestors, her family and Africa’s resilience, singer Angélique Kidjo tells a story that is a wake-up call to her audience.

Festival Holland Festival

Run time 90 minutes
Genre Music Theatre
Language English
Surtitles Dutch

Meet the Artist Fri June 17

In a 19th-century West-African village where slavery is in full swing, the young woman Omonlola receives a god-given gift in secret. Yemandja, the spirit of water and fertility, gives her the power to change the world through music. However, this power is only effective when her heart is pure. When a Brazilian slave trader makes a deal with the local king and kills or enslaves the people around Omonlola, a desire for revenge threatens to outweigh her positive strengths. -|- Yemandja is a combination of family drama and historical thriller, and is drenched in themes like love, betrayal, honour, free will and the horrors and injustices of slavery. The piece shows what happens when people are robbed of their culture. Kerry James Marshall, one of the great visual artists of our time, designed the astonishing set.

Meet the Artist

Following the performance June 17 there will be a talk led by Dorothey Blokland with Beatrice Capote.

Credits

concept Angélique Kidjo, Jean Hebrail, Naïma Hebrail Kidjo text Naïma Hebrail Kidj music Angélique Kidjo, Jean Hebrail direction Cheryl Lynn Bruce set design Kerry James Marshall costumes Mary Jane Marcasiano lights Kathy A. Perkins projection design Rasean Davonte choreography Beatrice Capote sound Kumi Ishizawa musical direction John Samorian dramaturgy Iyvon E. coach sensitivity Ann C. James make-up design Beckie Kravetz casting Andrea Zee stage manager Meghan Maureen Williams cast Angélique Kidjo, Briana Brooks, Michael de Souza, April Nixon, George L Brown, John Carlin, Frank Lawson, Kendrick Marion, Hallie Chapman, Rheaume Crenshaw executive production Xtina Parks production The OFFICE performing arts + film commissioned by MassMoCA, Arts Emerson, The Broad Stage at Santa Monica College, Brown Arts Institute, Cal Performances, Ruth and Stephen Hendel, Holland Festival, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Yale Schwarzman Center with support by W.L.S. Spencer Foundation

This performance was made possible by: Ammodo & Institut Français

About Holland Festival

Holland Festival is the largest international performing arts festival of the Netherlands and one of the oldest festivals of Europe. The festival was established in 1947 and will celebrate its 75-year anniversary in 2022.

It takes places every year, In June, in and around Amsterdam, at various locations, both indoors and outdoors, both large-scale and intimate, both online and offline.

More information about Holland Festival

More Holland Festival

Language NP Language no problem Dans la mesure de l'impossible Tiago Rodrigues Theater Dans la mesure de l'impossible
Close Dans la mesure de l'impossible Tiago Rodrigues
09 Jun '24 to 11 Jun '24
Tiago Rodrigues based his piece on the stories of aid workers in disaster areas. His pure, sincere approach makes for an intense, empathic experience of an extreme reality that most of us only know from the news.
Language NP Language no problem Eu não sou só eu em mim Grupa Cena 11 Dance Eu não sou só eu em mim
Close Eu não sou só eu em mim Grupa Cena 11
14 Jun '24 to 16 Jun '24
One of Brazil’s most important and daring dance companies will present an energetic piece that questions and affirms identity and unicity through dance, technology and philosophy.
Language NP Language no problem Signal to Noise Forced Entertainment Theater Signal to Noise
Close Signal to Noise Forced Entertainment
16 Jun '24 to 18 Jun '24
Legendary British theatre company plays with text, music and physical action in new work. Both light and disconcerting, comical and deadly serious.
Language NP Language no problem ALFA Wunderbaum Theater ALFA
Close ALFA Wunderbaum
20 Jun '24 to 22 Jun '24
ALFA sees a group of European Alfa Romeo aficionados come together as a club to share their passion for the Italian car brand. They talk about the club newsletter, the contents of the event calendar and the annual trip abroad.
Language NP Language no problem Hamlet Christiane Jahaty Theater Hamlet
Close Hamlet Christiane Jahaty
21 Jun '24 to 23 Jun '24
In Christiane Jatahy’s unconventional interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic, Hamlet wakes up, after four centuries of being the quintessence of male melancholy, as a grown woman looking to get things straight with her past.
Language NP Language no problem The Romeo Trajal Harrell, Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble Dance The Romeo
Close The Romeo Trajal Harrell, Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble
25 Jun '24 to 27 Jun '24
Picture a single dance for everyone, inspired by a world as it might have been. Choreographer Trajal Harrell’s The Romeo imagines this dance for people of all origins, genders and generations, of all tempers and moods.
Language NP Language no problem The Second Woman Anna Breckon & Nat Randall Theater The Second Woman
Close The Second Woman Anna Breckon & Nat Randall
28 Jun '24
In The Second Woman Georgina Verbaan repeats a single scene 100 times over a 24-hour period. Starring opposite her are 100 different male participants drawn from the local community. In each scene the two performers meet on the stage for the first time.