fringe Jongens

This programme is part of Amsterdam Fringe Festival.

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Boys is a passionate immersion into the work of the controversial filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, an extravagant yet intimate monologue about the hunger for love and sexuality. In this solo-performance, graduating actor Thor Braun surrenders himself completely to the work of Pasolini. Drawing from his own experiences as a young gay man, he enters into dialogue with Pasolini’s poems, novels, and films — vivid expressions of his desires: young, naked, muscular men, bathed in sunlight or wandering through tall, dry fields under the chirping of cicadas. Through letters, scenes, and a whole lot of paint, Thor explores how Pasolini’s frenzy of desire and love resonates with his own life and our present time. What void was Pasolini trying to fill? And how do you engage with the legacy of an artist whose work, in 2024, raises critical questions?

A work by Thor Braun. Direction: Char Li Chung. Thanks to: Theater Oostpool, Het Nationale Theater, Joppe Klein, Mara van Vlijmen.

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Thor Braun began his acting career at the age of nine with the film ‘Het Geheim’, where he fell in love with the magic of filmmaking. Since then, he has appeared in numerous films and television series, including De Belofte van Pisa, for which he was nominated for a Dutch Academy Award, and as Chris in the successful series Oogappels. In 2021, he was accepted into the ArtEZ Theatre School in Arnhem, where his passion for theatre truly ignited. Thor aims to inspire audiences with his fascination for both nature and sexuality, combining various art forms on stage to do so. JONGENS marks his theatrical coming out — a personal declaration of his love for visual and unabashedly emotional theatre. The final direction is in the hands of director Char Li Chung.