Looking for the People
Opportunities for Legislative Theater in the Netherlands

by Ronald Matthijssen

It begins with a murder
like so many plots do. First it was the murder of political innocence in the Netherlands. The country that was renown for its tolerant and humanistic approach was shook up by a political campaign it had never seen. Pim Fortuyn, the flamboyant professor, fascinated as well as disgusted the people and the media. His lines were short, his message clear: we must clean up this country. Many thought he meant: we must take this country to the cleaner's, which would mean we would not recognize it anymore. Fortuyn demanded a complete immigration stop and compulsory integration programmes for immigrants, more police on the streets, longer sentences and the sacking of the current poitical and administrative élite. Just before his party reached the biggest election victory ever in the history of Dutch democracy, he was killed by an animal rights activist.

Spect-actors flood the stage
It was not so much what he wanted that fascinated the people, but how he brought his message across. Whatever his political programme, Fortuyn turned the dull and predictable Dutch parliamentary world into an arena, a theatre, in which the existing politicians looked like extras, playing a walk-on part. In order to become leading players again, the "old" parties have to take their theatres to the streets and meet their audiences. The country is full of murmurs: "They are looking for the people, they want to meet them". A meeting between the world of power and the world of the people is like: two people, a platform and a conflict. It's the basic definition of theatre. So we have been receiving these phone calls.

If politics turn into theatre…
there lies an open chance for Legislative Theatre. Two years ago, if we would try to explain about LT, people would start to look very puzzled. In the passing weeks, we keep hearing: "That's exactly what we are looking for". Something similar happened in Austria, after the Haider-people came into government: the parties that lost the election started looking for the people. In the Netherlands Pim Fortuyn produced the Pim-People, so the parties are looking for them. The Pim-People are those who find that nobody listens to them, they comprise almost 20% of the electorate and presumably more than half of the non-voters. If politics turn into theatre, we will invite them on stage to see their proposals for a different society develop. In two weeks, Formaat will give an Image Theatre workshop in one of the most deprived and betrayed areas in the country: South-East Amsterdam. An area full of immigrants who see integration not only as a set of obligations, but also a catalogue of rights, in this case the right to a dignified way of housing. Other major cities in the Netherlands have started talks about projects with Formaat. Instead of "interactive theatre" they call it "interactive policy". We will be there to facilitate the interaction, but only if the interaction is liable to produce real changes. But the administrations after Fortuyn have understood: they don't want to cause another invasion of the Pim-People.

Under Pressure 10 - May 2002