Orkater - A time of love

After the resounding success of The Death of Benny Simons, director Shady El-Hamus and writer Ashgan El-Hamus return with A Time of Love: an energetic, compelling love story set against the backdrop of a changing Netherlands.

He leaves sun-drenched Egypt behind to fulfil his acting dream. She grows up in rainy Netherlands as the daughter of Surinamese parents, dreaming of a career as a singer. When they find each other, their love is immediate and inevitable. In the big city, they build the life they always envisioned. Until the social wind in the Netherlands turns, and slowly but surely blows into their love nest.

The story starts where it hurts: at the end. From there, we move back through time, to the 1990s. From lows to highs, and from contempt to curiosity. Do you manage to stay together at a time when the social tone hardens and turns increasingly against you? And eventually even seeps into your living room and relationship?

A Time of Love pulsates to a sizzling mix of Arabic and Western music with compositions by Yasper Molle (The Death of Benny Simons). Together with a live band, Dwight Breinburg (Café 749, The Great Ricardo), and actors 'Ntianu Stuger and Shahine El-Hamus, among others, create an organic, uplifting sound of love.

Shady El-Hamus's previous performance, The Death of Benny Simons, was nominated three times by the Nederlandse Toneeljury: Shady El-Hamus for the directing award, Sidar Toksöz for his contributing role and Daniël Kolf won the Theo d'Or for his supporting role. From the jury report: "Death of Benny Simons is theatre that touches and chafes: a gripping story about grief, growing up and the longing for connection, told with guts, feeling and originality."

'The Death of Benny Simons is theatre at its best: emotional, pure, intimate.' ★★★★ NRC on The Death of Benny Simons

About the makers

Shady El-Hamus is a director and screenwriter. He achieved great success with his theatre debut with Orkater with De dood van Benny Simons. Before that, he made the feature film De Libi (including Golden Calf for Best Screenplay) and was the first Dutch filmmaker to release a Netflix feature: Forever Rich.

Ashgan El-Hamus is a screenwriter, director and columnist. She wrote performance De dood van Benny Simons with Shady El-Hamus at Orkater and made the short films Birdland and Lois Lane from the NTR series Onze straat, among others. She is currently working on her feature debut Al Baraneya.

'Ntianu Stuger is an actor and theatre maker. She previously made A Night with Queen Angelito with Orkater and starred in Wildfire. She also acted in several productions at ITA and Toneelschuur, among others. She was previously named Volkskrant talent of the year.

Shahine El-Hamus is an actor. He starred with Orkater in Mother of Europe and has also acted in many films and series, including Crypto Boy. He won a Golden Calf for his role in the film The Promise of Pisa.

Yasper Molle is a composer, musician and arranger. He previously composed the music of Orkater performance The Death of Benny Simons. He also worked with artists such as Bnnyhunna and Winne, among others, and performed under his own stage name 'Yasper' at festivals such as North Sea Jazz, Into The Great Wide Open, Down The Rabbit Hole and Super Sonic Jazz.

Dwight Breinburg is a singer, violinist, percussionist and co-founder of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra. He was previously involved as composer and musician in the Orkater performance The Great Ricardo and Café 749.

About Orkater

For 50 years, Orkater has been the music theatre company of the Netherlands, telling stories that matter now and where music has as much value as language. Orkater productions are direct, sensitive, daring and generous.