Press release
Amsterdam, 18 November 2025
Two unique collaborations, three co-productions, and one co- commission: the first four performances of the Holland Festival 2026 have been announced.
On 25 November, ticket sales will open for the first four performances of the 79th Holland Festival. A Trial – after An Enemy of the People by Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy and actor Wagner Moura is a contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. This performance is a special collaboration between Holland Festival, Festival d'Avignon and Edinburgh International Festival — the three European festivals founded in 1947.
Dutch artist Germaine Kruip explores the boundaries between perception, sound, and performance with A Possibility, which will be presentedboth in Amsterdam and Heerlen. Associate artist Hildur Guðnadóttir presents her own work together with that of composers who inspire her in Nærmynd: Iceland Symphony Orchestra x Hildur Guðnadóttir. And Lebanese director and choreographer Ali Chahrour returns with When I Saw the Sea, a performance filled with resilience, music, poetry, and raw emotion.
Three iconic festivals join forces:
A Trial – after An Enemy of the People by Christiane Jatahy and Wagner Moura
In 1947, in the aftermath of World War II, the Holland Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Festival d’Avignon were founded from the same conviction: art that art has the unique power to unite cultures and offer a common language in a fragmented world.. Nearly eight decades later, A Trial – after An Enemy of the People marks the special bond between these three festivals and the start of a multi-year collaboration in celebration of their 80th anniversaries in 2027.
About this collaboration
Emily Ansenk, Director of Holland Festival: ' International festivals like Holland Festival, Festival d’Avignon and Edinburgh International Festival are living laboratories of artistic exchange. Artist driven and forward-looking, we co-produce new work that challenges convention and invites risk. Born from the belief that art can bridge what politics divides, these post-war performing arts festivals have evolved into platforms for new voices, challenging ideas, and artistic collaboration that knows no frontiers. Then and now, it reminds us that to cross borders through art is to rediscover our shared humanity.’
A Trial also marks the first collaboration between theatre and film director Christiane Jatahy (associate artist of the Holland Festival 2024) and award-winning actor Wagner Moura (best known for his Golden Globe–nominated role as Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s Narcos). Together, they give a new, radical, and contemporary interpretation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, inviting the audience to choose a side.
In Ibsen’s groundbreaking 1882 play, protagonist Thomas Stockmann seeks to expose a water contamination scandal in his spa town, but is ostracised as a result. More than a century later, the play remains strikingly relevant, with its sharp examination of the tension between personal integrity and social conformity, and between ecology and economic gain.
In Jatahy’s adaptation, Stockmann, played by Wagner Moura, finds himself in a contemporary Brazilian courtroom where his fate is to be decided. There are no lawyers or judges — it is up to the audience to decide whether he is innocent or an “enemy of the people.”
Christiane Jatahy on the collaboration
'For an artist to develop a research, the network of support from festivals and theaters is essential.
Without it, ideas fail to take shape, time slips away, and creations never come to life.
The support and partnership of the Holland Festival, the Festival d’Avignon, and the Edinburgh Festival have been — and continue to be — fundamental for my artistic dreams to materialize, to become theatre, and to meet the audience.'
Light, space, and sound: Germaine Kruip’s A Possibility (with performances in Amsterdam and Heerlen)
Another first: for the first time, the Holland Festival is collaborating with PLT Theater Heerlen, and Germaine Kruip’s A Possibility will be presented in both Amsterdam and Heerlen. This partnership was initiated by PLT and fits perfectly with their ambition to host remarkable and pioneering performances, as well as with the Holland Festival’s aim to present festival productions beyond the Randstad region. Both partners have contributed to the production through co-production support.
Originally trained as a scenographer, Kruip’s unique practice bridges the worlds of visual art, architecture, and performance, transforming them into immersive experiences.
A Possibility consists of two parts, of which the first builds upon the piece A Possibility of an Abstraction from 2014. In this renewed first act, the stage becomes a blank canvas for a play of perception, as light interacts with shadow, reflection, and the theatre’s architecture, transforming them into characters in a mesmerizing, mind-bending performance.
In Act II, the human element is introduced: four percussionists enter the stage and play Kruip’s tuned sculptures, coaxing with a unique sound from the singular instruments. The percussionists introduce a language ritualised play of call and response, echo and repetition, they bring us back to the spiritual origins of the performance space.
With A Possibility, Kruip creates a piece that transforms the theatre into a site of wonder and invites audiences to explore a world of infinite possibilities.
A Possibility is commissioned by Factory International, Manchester; Holland Festival and PLT and produced by Factory International, Manchester.
Raw emotions in Ali Chahrour’s When I Saw the Sea
Lebanese director and choreographer Ali Chahrour captivates audiences with his performances about mourning, ritual, and survival. After the heart-wrenching Told by My Mother (Holland Festival 2025), he returns with When I Saw the Sea. This time, he turns his gaze to the exploitation of migrant workers under Lebanon’s kafala system, which places migrants’ residence status in the hands of their employers, rendering them extremely vulnerable.
On stage, three women — Tenei Ahmad, Zena Moussa, and Rania Jamal — tell their own stories and those of thousands of others. They sing, move, and speak in a form that balances between performance and testimony. The music, by vocalist Lynn Adib and musician Abed Kobeissy, combines traditional and electronic sounds.
The staging of When I Saw the Sea is austere: an empty stage, subtly shifting light, and music that oscillates between lament and heartbeat rhythm. Three women, armed only with their voices and bodies, claim their right to be seen and heard — and Chahrour transforms their act of survival into art. When I Saw the Sea is a co-production of the Holland Festival.
A personal portrait in sound: Nærmynd: Iceland Symphony Orchestra x Hildur Guðnadóttir
Associate artist for the upcoming edition, Hildur Guðnadóttir, is among the most influential (film) composers of her generation. Her work is characterised by an enchanting combination of ambient drones — long-sustained sound layers that evoke tension or atmosphere — and contemporary composed music.
In Nærmynd: Iceland Symphony Orchestra x Hildur Guðnadóttir, Guðnadóttir takes centre stage not only as composer but also as cellist, performing with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 1950, the orchestra gained international acclaim with performances at the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, and the Musikverein in Vienna, and will perform their compatriot’s music for the first time at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
The programme of Nærmynd (Icelandic for “close-up”) includes music from Guðnadóttir’s award-winning film scores Joker, TÁR, and A Haunting in Venice. It also features new work, co-commissioned with Reykjavík Arts Festival, composed especially for this occasion, as well as music by composers who inspire her: Arvo Pärt, Ryuichi Sakamoto (associate artist 2021), Mica Levi, Kaija Saariaho, and Alvin Lucier.
Nærmynd is conducted by Daníel Bjarnason, one of Iceland’s leading conductors and composers, previously featured at the Holland Festival with We Came in Peace for All Mankind (2018). Most recently, he conducted Lux, the new album by Spanish superstar Rosalía.
Ticket sales for the performances below start on 25 November.
The full Holland Festival 2026 programme will be announced on 3 March 2026.
The 79th Holland Festival runs from 3 – 28 June 2026.
- A Trial – after An Enemy of the People ITA, 25–28 June; Festival d’Avignon, July 2026; Edinburgh International Festival, 7-10 Aug
- A Possibility - Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA), 13-15 June; Theater Heerlen, 25-26 June
- When I Saw the Sea – Theater Bellevue, 10–14 June
- Nærmynd: Iceland Symphony Orchestra x Hildur Guðnadóttir – Royal Concertgebouw, 15 June
For tickets, times and more information, please see hollandfestival.nl
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photo credit top photo:: Caio Lírio - A Trial - after An Enemy of the People; bottom photo: Camille Blake - Hildur Guðnadottír.