SONG FROM FAR AWAY

credits

Director: Ivo van Hove
Author: Simon Stephens
Actor: Eelco Smits
Soundtrack: Mark Eitzel
Set and Lightning Design: Jan Versweyveld
Playwright: Bart van den Eynde
Produced by: Toneelgroep Amsterdam in co-production with MITsp – International Theater Festival of São Paulo
Co-producer in London: Young Vic
Private Producer: Joachim Fleury
Assistant Set Designer: Ramón Huijbrechts
Technical and production Manager: Wolf-Götz Schwörer
Production Director: Michiel van Schijndel
Stage Manager: Sebastiaan Kruijs
Sound Operator: Erwin Sterk
Lighting Operator: Martijn Smolders
Costume Design department Manager: Wim van Vliet
Publicity: Mette Raaphorst

synopsis

A young banker (Eelco Smits) returns from New York to his hometown, Amsterdam, to attend the funeral of his younger brother. He reads a series of letters in various shades – nostalgic, challenging and uninhibited – which he had written in an attempt to regain contact with the brother he never really got to know. The monologue is a grieving process by which the young banker dives in his distress to rediscover hope and optimism.

“I wanted to reconstruct the living past of this two brothers through their correspondence. The letters lead us directly to the intimacy of their relationship, their common bonds, but they also explore the questions that remain unanswered after the death of a loved one. This is a play about loss and the fact that the past is a foreign country to which we can never return”, says the author Simon Stephens.