GIJSBREGHT VAN AMSTEL

CANCELED DUE TO THE COVID-19 MEASURES

A tragedy about the fall of the city of Joost van Vondel (1638)

In the late middle ages, Gijsbreght was master of Amsterdam. Surrounding towns under leadership of the Kennemers and Waterlanders laid siege to the city for more than a year because they believed Gijsbreght was involved in the  assassination of Floris V. A murder committed to avenge the rape of Machteld, the beautiful flower of Velzen. On the morning of 23 December enemy troops encamped at the city gates suddenly disappeared. The siege had been aborted for some reason. Moored outside the city, was a lone ship, ‘t Zeepaerd, laden with wood. Hastily abandoned, so it seemed… Traditionally, since 1641, Gijsbreght van Amstel is staged around Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Jorn Heijdenrijk and Manja Topper play all fourteen roles in this almost four-hundred-year-old play about deceit, revenge and violence in a virtuoso adaptation by Carel Alphenaar. Performed exclusively during the Christmas holidays at the Bellevue Lunch Theatre.