Terschelling
Terschelling, Netherlands
After a long residency on the beautiful dutch Island Terschelling and the village Midsland we gave 11 shows in the famous Oerol festival, 12th -21st of June 2015. Thank you to everybody in Midsland that contributed with stories and assistance for making the performance. Here are some pictures from the show.
Beneath: Terschelling is currently threatened by the dutch governments plan of fracking in the area. There is a big resistance movement, pointing to the severe environmental issues regarding fracking. In the moment of our visit in Midsland the matter is not yet settled and there is a great worry for the future of the island. On the picture we see one of the oil company's gas tower aiming at the island. The colors of the target plate are the official color combination of the island Terschelling.
Our protagonist: Stryper Wyfke, a woman from the village that is remembered for luring away the English army, preventing them from destroying Midsland and the eastern parts of the island in 1666.
The radio-time machine used for traveling forwards in time, to the days when the island was threatened by ailiens who sought up all earthly gas-towers in order to extract the energy for their own use..
An ailien space ship taking control over the gas tower on the nearby island Texel in the year 2030.
The opening of the grave of Stryper Wyfke in the year 2030, when genetic mutation finally is a daily reality.
Stryper Wyfke, that is resurrected in 2030, as the local heroine destined to once more save the island. Here she is as a young girl with her activist father, whom for the picture preferred to stay anonymous. The logo of the shirt and the text “Gastfrij Terschelling” is referring to the movement founded in 2015 against fracking in the island area.
Stryper Wyfke was trained to continue the struggle against gasdrilling. Her education included also survival skills as diving, fishing with a manual harpoon.
Here we see Stryper Wyfke as a young woman riding on a horse, she is just on her way to the Hague to for the first time in her life confront the dutch government about the plans of fracking on Terschelling.
Drawing of the gas tower that was intended to be constructed on the island, year 2045.
A dutch duck, arriving in one of the local Midsland bars: De Stoep, in order to attend a “burenbier” (a meeting between villagers, discussing urgent local matters). The duck is ordering a cranberry beer.
While discussing the problem of fracking with the desperate Stryper Wyfke the duck by mistake choaks on a cranberry. This gives the activists an idea on how to stop the building plans once and for all.
The plan involved an elephant and a electric mouse.
We will not fully account for the plan that was found during the burenbier at De Stoep that day. However we can tell you that it involved a very big cranberry pie, the biggest ever seen in the history of the island.
A picture of the cranberry pie just after it was ran over by the elephant.
A picture of the traditional costumes of the local celebration Sundrum, To the left we see a man in a typical homemade hay-dress, and a mask making him unrecognizable to his neigbours. To the right we see a child that was caught outside on the night of the sundrum. As tradition goes, any women or children found outside on the night of the sundrum will be chained to the nearest traffic sign. As you notice on the picture, the human figures are hardly recognizable, this is thought to be the reason that the dutch government mistook the islanders for aliens in 2050.
A spy-butterfly sent to Tershelling by the dutch government. Its cameras registered the great Sundrum celebration of 2050. After this event the government backed out of their plans of drilling a gas tower due to fear that the aliens already had taken the island into their possession. After that day the Terschellinger’s where forever left alone and no more plans of fracking has been proposed for the area.
Here we see a map of Tershelling and the local flag in the background.