text: On Friday, 22 January, International Theatre Amsterdam teamed up with Toneelschuur Productions to present a livestream of the universally acclaimed play Weg met Eddy Bellegueule. Based on Édouard Louis’ novel The End of Eddy, the coming-of-age drama offers an often gruelling depiction of growing up as a homosexual in an environment that is characterised by economic and emotional poverty. It is rough, raw and highly emotional.
  Director Eline Arbo, who last September won the Regieprijs (Best Stage Direction) for this show, has the four young actors Victor IJdens, Jesse Mensah, Felix Schellekens and Romijn Scholten share the role of main character Eddy. Their high-energy, exquisitely layered teamwork won them a joint nomination for a Louis d’Or, the Dutch award for best stage performance. Aside from portraying Eddy, the four each take on different characters around him, with IJdens as a rude, violent and ultimately clumsy father and Mensah as a chain-smoking mother whose manipulative skills run away with her. Eddy grows up trapped in a belief system that makes everyone a victim from the get-go, defined by slippery values nobody can live up to.