Ciske de Rat (Musical) Chapter 01

History: In 1984 a film was made about the book Ciske de Rat. In this film Danny de Munk played Ciske. The story is about a young boy (about 11 years old/young) who has a difficult youth. His mother isn't very nice, his father's always away on sea, he got kicked out of school. In his new school he made a friend, Doris. Who is in a wheelchair because he has a disease, polio. Ciske convinces Doris' parents and the schoolteacher to take Doris with them on a school trip, unfortunately after the trip Doris because very ill and dies not long after the trip. Doris left Ciske a book, which he loved. His mother, who made him work at the café and even then child labour was illegal. So when people find out they tell the mother to take Ciske home. His mother's not nice at all so what she does is rip the book Ciske got from Doris apart. Ciske mad at his mother takes out his knife and stabs her, unfortunately this led to her death. As you might understand Ciske goes to jail for 6 months and if he showed 'good' behaviour he could go to his father. Anyway that is the basic of this story.

The musical: Yesterday, I went to see the musical. Again Danny de Munk returned to play the part of Ciske de Rat. But this time as the man. The musical starts with the Second World War and people being called to fight. Ciske is one of them. Here he meets his old school teacher, which he always called 'Teacher'. When they meet the recall back the first time they met, in a school class. So we see both the old Ciske and the young Ciske. Old Ciske is fighting his demons of when he killed his mother. So, when he saves one of his old classmates in the war and gets hit himself the only thing that saved him was this Madonna statue he received from the Father at the rehabilitation centre which was said to always place near your heart. Because he was shot he ended up in coma. He was clearly battling his demons at that time and one moment he saw his younger self. Young Ciske told the Old Ciske that what happend was an 'in the moment' thing. That was when he released he should get on with his life and finally that he'd marry Betje, his childhood sweetheart. (So it has an happy end after all.)

My opinion: Whenever I see Danny de Munk in a musical I'm always in awe at his voice. He has such a wonderful voice and powerful voice. To see him return to this part was amazing as well. We all know him mostly from the little Amsterdam rascal that was Ciske the Rat. with a thick Amsterdam's accent and singing "You can all go to hell" (loosely translation of the line "Krijg toch allemaal de kolere"). To hear him sing this song, once more, is just breathtaking. Although he obviously didn't sing the whole song, it was still amazing. Little Ciske was wonderful as well. Great Amsterdam's accent. The jokes were great as well.

Conclusion: I really really really loved this musical. Not only because Danny played in it, but also because this is an amazing story of how someone, in this case Ciske, is battling the demons of the past. I'd definitely recommend this musical to any musical lovers!