Me and Mr Jansen

In English

A story about a Dutch barber named Mr. Jansen and an Israeli storyteller who needs a haircut.

Me and Mr. Jansen is an engaging solo storytelling show that invites the audience to venture beyond concepts such as 'right' and 'wrong'. Who plays innocent, and who wears the traitor's costume? Can we even choose which roles we play or are we nothing but figures trapped in the wheel of history, endlessly repeating our parts?

The show features a Dutch sign language interpreter

The story

It all started when Raphael Rodan, our storyteller, stumbled upon a black and white picture of a razzia in 1943. In the image, he recognised his current home in the centre of Amsterdam. An older couple was being pulled out of the building by men in white coats; officers of the SS. What must a storyteller do when faced with such a story? He peels the layers off the past, waking up sleeping ghosts, like the Dutch barber who used to live on the ground floor, Mr. Jansen. Inquiring him about forgotten secrets, distant memories of buried sins.

About Raphael Rodan

Raphael Rodan (1980, Jerusalem, Israel) is an award-winning theatre maker and storyteller. Since he moved to Amsterdam, he has created a few hit storytelling shows, including the winner of Amsterdam fringe 2017 My Father Held a Gun, about the nature of war. His work has received international recognition, playing in theatres and festivals all over Europe.

Next to writing and performing, Raphael also teaches storytelling, In 2014, together with Farnoosh Farnia and Sahand Sahebdivani, he created The Mezrab Storytelling School. Since 2018, together with Sahebdivani, he has been working as the Artistic Director of the Amsterdam Storytelling Festival. The vision of the festival is to link the ancient art of storytelling with today's most current burning questions.