"Theatre is my first great love, and nothing can compare to it”
And it’s a challenging love that continually pushes her boundaries. "Theatre is in a sense much harder than television," she explains. "For the camera, you can redo a scene, but on stage, you have to keep the audience captivated for two hours. You can never relax or play on autopilot." It involves empathy and anticipation; with other actors, but also with the audience. "The Tilburg audience is wonderful: generous and good-humored." For Ilse, the audience is not just spectators; they are co-players. "You feel and hear everything—their breathing, their reactions. The audience gives you so much energy, but acting is also a huge responsibility. They make time for it, so I want to give them the very best I have."
She gives everything on stage, but she also invests all her energy in preparation. For the play of the coming season, she does this again. She finds it fantastic to immerse herself completely in the world she is writing about. For De Onverwoeste Zusters van Hoogezand-Sappemeer, she travels to Haworth in Yorkshire. This is where the Brontë Sisters, authors of, among others, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey, were born. “I visit the museum, their house, and the inn where they always had to pull their drunken brother Branwell from. I take walks and write day and night.”
Family is for life
Sisters and family are an important source of inspiration for Ilse, especially the Brontë Sisters, as they were reportedly in competition with each other. "All three were writers, and they wanted to be the best, but in their own way.”
Family ties are often unique and complex, and Ilse Warringa understands this like no one else. Growing up in a family with two older brothers and a younger sister, she knows the dynamics of family life from the inside. "The bond with your brothers or sisters is unique. With sisters, it can sometimes be confronting and annoying, because you know each other so well. You see traits in your sister that you actually don’t want to see, as they confront you with yourself. Then I think: yes, I do that too, how annoying actually." The role of sister unconsciously serves as inspiration for her writing. Sometimes Ilse writes something and only later realizes which themes, events, or people from her life are woven into it. "What happens in my life always somehow finds its way into my texts."
Comedy with a laugh and a tear
For the upcoming season, Ilse draws a parallel with 19th-century themes, which still have a contemporary link. Progressive women, family ties, and death – it sounds heavy, but Ilse always knows how to incorporate humor into it. “People who have seen De Ongeplukte Zusters van Almere County can expect at least as much spectacle in terms of humor. It’s going to be another comedy with a laugh and a tear, because I love that a piece is touching but also makes you laugh.” Finding the balance between humor and drama is what it's all about for Ilse. “That you sometimes really have a lump in your throat because you empathize with the characters, but then burst into laughter again. It must never become too sentimental.” That Ilse doesn’t shy away from intertwining difficult and lighthearted themes is also evident from her upcoming piece De Onverwoeste Zusters van Hoogezand-Sappemeer.
It’s part of it
Although many shy away from it, Ilse wants to look death straight in the eye. “The way we deal with death increasingly occupies my mind. Perhaps because I’m turning fifty this year. Not that I’m constantly occupied with it, but I do think about the transition to another phase of life. My parents and in-laws are getting older and are seeing more and more people around them passing away. This makes you naturally start to think, and that seeps into my writing.”
