Second
My mother, her friend and I went out last night to see Marcel Hensema, an actor and entertainer, perform his second show, aptly named “Mijn Tweede” (My Second). I hadn’t heard of him before, but Mom had heard of his previous show, and said she would like to go, would I like to go with? I said yes, so tickets were bought and off we went.
I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly. I saw some photos of his previous show and got slightly worried as it seemed very dress-up and sketch-based and I’m not always a fan of that. Fortunately, the evening turned out great.
Hensema started out by singing old songs adapted to be about places in the province. He then did dress-up as a character and started doing a sketch-like story, which morphed into another story, as another character and so on. As he made his way through characters, repeating some, and stories, it became an interconnected whole showing this big slice-of-life of all these characters. All to make the point that life isn’t this grand tale, it is everything in between, and so it is also for the people around you. Everyone influences everyone, and you’re a part of more lives than you think. So look around you at your life and don’t pass it by waiting for special occasions, grand accomplishments or other extraordinary things. As the saying goes: “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans”
In the end, I liked the moral and the sentiment he wanted to get across, and I liked many of the stories he told; but I feel I would’ve liked it better with less dress-up and sketch, and more as a sort of ‘regular’ cabaret.