The special life of Hilletje Jans
The special life of Hilletje Jans is a play by the Dutch playwright and director Ad de Bont .
action
The play takes place in the Netherlands in the 18th century.
Hilletje Jans lives as a little girl with her parents in Utrecht . After the sudden death of her parents, she cannot stay with her relatives there and therefore sets off on the dangerous journey to Amsterdam on her own , hoping to find accommodation with her aunt, who runs a pub there.
Your aunt takes Hilletje in. When a murder happens in the pub, Hilletje is tagged, and she has to spend seven years in a women's prison, a so-called spinning house , as a punishment . After serving her sentence, she returns to her aunt and her cousin, who is also employed in the pub. In order to stay there, Hilletje has to do dirty work and suffer severe humiliations from her aunt and cousin, which ultimately causes her to flee.
Disguised as a man, she hires on a ship as a sailor under the name Jan Hille . After the death of the sick captain at sea, the question arises who should take over his position. In the event of an attack by pirates, Jan / Hilletje takes the lead and manages to ward off the attack through courageous and level-headed behavior. So the choice falls on them.
When the ship returns to Amsterdam, word of the great "Captain Jan Hille" has already got around, so that as a token of appreciation he will be married to a distinguished daughter of the city. Hilletje agrees to the wedding, whereupon her role play is exposed. Since she has been guilty of crimes worthy of death by reversing roles and thus "sneaking up" marriage, her execution is requested. In the end, however, the Dutch prince is summoned as judge in this matter, who in the end acquits Hilletje.
Staging
The first performance of the drama took place in 1983 by Ad de Bont's children's theater group "Wederzijds". Since then, the piece has also been performed in Germany by several children's, youth and adult ensembles. The target group is adults and children aged eight and over.
music
Guus Ponsioen composed the music for the piece .
literature
- The special life of Hilletje Jans : program of the theater group of the Heidelberg University of Education
Individual proof
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
