Just van Bommel
Maker
Just van Bommel (1999) likes to blend humor with tragedy, broaching the trivial and commonplace to create space for existential and universal questions. Light, personal, sometimes melodramatic and always bursting with self-irony, so that heavy topics might feel a little less oppressive.
Biography
Just graduated as a performer from Toneelacademie Maastricht in 2022. Their graduation production 't Showtje, a co-creation with Emma van den Elshout, was chosen by Via Rudolphi as one of three shows for Het Debuut 2022. Later that year, they created The Midnight Special for BOSLAB in collaboration with Laila Claessen and Lieke van der Vegt and A divine aversion to dying with Diane Mahín for Beginnings at Frascati. Since 2023, they have been associated with Frascati Producties as a maker.
For their first Frascati production, Het Spektakeltje, Just collaborated with with Emma again. The result was a kaleidoscopic performance about how everything in our universe moves with and around each other, how it intertwines, and how we can give it meaning
DEAR FRAIL MALE went into production in 2025 and is a personal yet universal performance about the weight of the male norm. The production was nominated for the BNG Theatre Prize. Another gleaming example of how Just is inspired in by their irritation of and fascination with established norms. This same year the fact that significant themes for them are the fear of death and awkwardness in love is something that wonderfully coincided with a lead performance in Oostpool’s Pride & Prejudice.
Nominations
- Nominated for BNG Bank Theaterprijs 2024
Juryrapport
“DEAR FRAIL MALE is a crystal-clear, important, and liberating performance in a beautiful poetic form.”
Press
"The combination of satire and empathy makes Dear Frail Male by Just van Bommel a brilliant act of resistance."
★★★★ de Volkskrant over DEAR FRAIL MALE
"In Het Spektakeltje, it's as if you're racing through a galaxy. [...] The performance makes you feel humble and, at the same time, connected to everything you cannot comprehend"
★★★★ de Volkskrant
"In both grand and small moments, the existence of humanity is beautifully charted."
Productions
