Compagnia UEUEUE

13/09/2026

12/09/2026

10 September — Day 11 Is that a Puppet Booth?
*Edouard Vuillard at Van Gogh Museum

Our journey continues with many adventures. We visited the Van Gogh Museum, and there too, in a way, folly finds its place, in how Van Gogh saw and lived the world. His swirling skies and restless brushwork can be read as a window into that inner turmoil?

We spoke again of the Fool, of Pulcinella. What is the difference between a hero and an anti-hero? What story must the Fool live out? Does he break the order and the rule of things, or is it the rule that breaks into his dreaming, foolish world?

We also drew, searched for images, and imagined new situations.

Culture Moves Europe

10/09/2026

9 September — Day 10 POPPENCAST BIG MEETING!

Every Wednesday, Egon performs at a charming venue in Amsterdam called De Hallen. Our own Pulcinella took the stage, presented in the small red Egon's castelet.

Many puppeteers came together for the occasion: Eric, who performs Jan Klaassen, Els van der Brug who plays glove puppets in the medieval style, Ellen with little Juna, and of course Egon and Nora with their son Robin.

It was truly wonderful to meet all these puppeteers at once, and to feel such a sincere, shared passion for the puppet, its history, its practice, and everything around it. It was also fascinating to test our show in front of an Amsterdam audience, and to try out Egon's castelet, with all its little bells and cymbals.

Afterwards, the manager of De Hallen invited us all for coffee and tea, and the conversation carried on a while longer.

Thanks so much to Egon, for sharing with us his puppet booth and his theatre, and setting up and eventing!

Egon Adel Puppet Cabinet Po**enkast
Ellen Scholten

Culture Moves Europe

09/09/2026

8 September — Day 9 UNIMA LIBRARY!

📚We had the chance to visit the NVP and UNIMA library in Haarlem, housed in Dirk's home. Ellen came along with us to see this precious archive. All the old and current magazines are carefully bound, some dating back before the 1950s. There are also many books in Dutch, English, and even Chinese. We found some beautiful old photographs too.

🌧️ + 📖 + 🫖Outside it rained all day, so it was truly perfect to stay tucked inside this small nest of books devoted to puppetry. We found several texts and images that gave us much inspiration. It becomes more and more striking how the figure of the Fool mirrors Jan Klaassen, Kasper, and Punch — how all these figures share the same extraordinary attributes, and even the same stories.

A warm thank you again to Dirk, who opened his doors and welcomed us with tea.

🧹We also share a few images from our stop in Alkmaar, where we visited the church and the town centre, and a wonderful shop of Dutch clogs and brushes of every kind : brooms, close friends of Pulcinella and his homologues!

Thank you again to Ellen, who guided us.

Culture Moves Europe

08/09/2026

6–7 September — Days 7 & 8

These last two days brought more encounters, more exchanges with Dutch puppeteers and friends of the puppet world. We watched Egon perform once again, and once again found it inspiring: the wide range of his movement, his manipulation, his musicality. His repertoire and the dramaturgy of Jan Klaassen, the types of characters, all the elements that build a living show, keep teaching us something new.

We also spent time with Ellen Scholten, of the company Belletje Sterk, in her house and workshop full of treasures and culture. We talked together about our different lives with puppetry, philosophy and practice.

We are also moving forward on the writing of "Le Fou & la Marotte": the characters and situations are taking clearer shape.

A warm thank you to Ellen, who opened her house, her heart, and her kitchen to us, for a culinary discovery of Holland too.

06/09/2026

06/09/2026

5 September — Day 6

We had the wonderful opportunity to discover the festival Po**en in het Park, to watch performances and talk with artists and puppet-lovers. At this festival, everyone talks puppetry: the show itself, how it comes together, what makes it work, its effect on the audience, its difficulties, its logistics. And beyond the stage: the associations, the institutions, the library, the magazine, the members.

The festival feels like a true haven for puppetry, made for children and families. At its centre stands a circle of small booths, with baskets full of puppets, where children and adults try their hand at manipulation and put on their own little shows. A small post office, run by a puppet postmistress, stays open all day, where anyone can sit down to write or draw a postcard. Three large tents and one lovely little puppet theatre host the performances. Organisers and volunteers in yellow t-shirts greet everyone with a wide smile.

Egon and his Jan Klaassen opened and closed the day.

05/09/2026

4 September — Day 5 Culture moves Europe

The day began wet. Rain caught us unprepared, and we found shelter in two unplanned places: the museum of contemporary art, and the Huis Willet-Holthuysen. Both gave us much to think about — making, materials, modelling as a model for wood carving, even a turning backdrop. We found, once again, old paintings full of theatre and fair scenes.

We also began sketching first prototypes: heads and costumes for the show to come.

In the afternoon we met again with Nora and Egon, joined this time by Osel — a Latin and Greek philologist and puppeteer, who has also worked with a magician exploring puppet-magic, and a commedia dell'arte actor !

To close the day, we cooked pasta al pomodoro with parmigiano for everyone. It was a great success.

Culture Moves Europe
Goethe-Institut

04/09/2026

3 September 2026 — Day 4

A second day at the Rijksmuseum, to visit the other half. Then a long brainstorm with Egon on the show and its research: how to build dramaturgy, situations, characters.

The place of text keeps questioning us. Where is the balance between the visual and the spoken word? At what point does speech become necessary, to carry meanings that gesture alone cannot hold?

We are also thinking : which parts of the traditional, or classical, repertoire could serve us here — though "tradition" itself resists a fixed definition, since even tradition belongs to its own time.

We looked, too, for traces of magic on the puppet stage.

And we agreed: the figure of Till Eulenspiegel is a path worth following further...
Till Eulenspiegel — a trickster of old German and Flemish folklore, wandering from town to town, taking every instruction too literally and turning proverbs into pranks. His name is said to mean "owl-mirror," wisdom and folly staring back at one another.

Today we took photographs with our real camera, still waiting to share them once transferred to the phone.

Culture Moves Europe Абылайбек Искаков

03/09/2026

2 September 2026 Day 3 Culture moves Europe 🇳🇱🇪🇺
*Jan Klaassen by Egon Adel Puppet Cabinet Po**enkast 🎺

After so much dreaming over the Rijksmuseum website, we finally walked through its doors. We lingered long over the collection before 1600, the paintings, sculptures, ship models, plates, and toys... many carrying old images of fools, fairs, theatres, masks, and carnivals ! The theatre's stage is built from barrels. Could our next booth be built the same way?
Drunkenness and folly seem close friends. Or, when everyone around is drunk, it is lucidity itself that looks like madness.

The sea, too, is taking an interesting importance. There is the old Ship of Fools, the madness of being surrounded by water... but something else as well: ports carried exotic goods across the water, and puppet shows too, travelling the same routes as everything new and strange.

The day's great gift was watching Egon perform Jan Klaassen — a musical castelet on three levels, beautiful small wooden puppets, and playing with precision. We also met Nora, wonderful maker and performer, full of knowledge and resources.

Thank you to Culture Moves Europe, to Egon, and to Nora.

Culture Moves Europe
Абылайбек Искаков