Unceremoniously (2009)

Directed by: Norbert ter Hall | 112 minutes | comedy | With: Theo Maassen

Theo Maassen as you’ve never seen him before, that is the essence of the cinema version of his latest cabaret show ‘Without pardon’. An evening-filling program by a comedian on the silver screen, which has never been shown in the Netherlands before, and with that, Maassen has a first.

On September 19, 2009, Theo Maassen performed at the Oude Luxor Theater in Rotterdam, where ten cameras under the direction of Norbert van Hall captured the show. At that time, Maassen had already toured the country with his sixth theater performance for over a year. In just two months, the material was edited and released as a cinema film.

However, the question is: does a feature film of the performance really add something essential to the theater programme? The answer to this is: no. It is a very different experience than when you as a viewer are actually in the room and it is also very different from watching a registration of a show on television (not counting the format). Because it is with the latter that the film is easiest to compare. And in that respect the film is nothing more and nothing less than a registration of a theater performance, which means that the whole point of making a feature film is lost.

A visit to the theatre, which is admittedly much more expensive than the price of a cinema ticket, is much more of an experience. There is much more intimacy, even in Luxor’s main hall with 900 other visitors, and the interaction is also evident between the artist and the audience. When Maassen yells “Cunt Rotterdammers”, he is talking to the people in the room, not to the anonymous people who are in a completely different room. The viewer in the cinema is much more a spectator, who perceives the events through a prism, as it were. It is a strange sensation to hear both the theater and the cinema at the same time laughing at a joke.

At the same time, the camera is close to Maessen’s skin and every hair of his stubble can be counted. It’s an advantage that the camera doesn’t miss a detail, as every nuance in Maassen’s eyes and every muscle contraction is exposed, underlining the power of his story. The chosen camera angles and the strong editing also show that the makers have recorded the performance with care and a great sense of timing.

Fifteen months old, to the day, she is Maassen’s daughter, whom he talks about with pride and love and of whom he even shows a photo. The new fatherhood is the common thread in the performance and his highly personal struggle with time-honored questions such as: ‘Am I a good parent?’ and ‘what kind of world will my child grow up in?’ With biting sarcasm, sharp observations and contrary logic, Maassen sometimes gives surprising insights into his worldview and what society looks like. He divides society into two groups, the people who are processed with a good ejaculation and the “precum people”, which needs no further explanation. The last group consists of the stupid people, the complainers, the disaffected. He mainly refers to the potential voters of the Party for Freedom. But Maassen’s political jokes are not his strongest trump card, it is precisely in the moments when he is at his strongest that he is at his strongest. The everyday observations, the relationships between men and women form the backbone of the performance. Of course, hard jokes are not shunned and he keeps a hilarious diatribe about the national coat of arms on his passport.

The film will once again confirm to fans of Maassen (and those who have not seen the performance in the theater) that he is one of the best comedians, if not the best, in the Netherlands. If that’s the point the film wants to make, then the makers have succeeded in their goal.