William Shakespeare can be held responsible for the best in Dutch acting this season. Seven of the thirteen nominations for the most important Dutch acting awards have gone to actors who played roles that were written or inspired by William Shakespeare.

Ten Oorlog!, is a trilogy produced by the Belgium based De Blauwe Maandag Compagnie and written by Tom Lanoye. The three-part play is based on Shakespeare's historic king-drama's. It received four nominations in three categories, whilst Hamlet in the production of Amsterdam theatre company De Trust received three nominations in two categories. Hamlet has also been nominated in the Gouden Gids Publieksprijs as best play of the season.

The nominees for the Louis d'Or Award for best actor are Jacob Derwig for Hamlet, Jaap Spijkers also for Hamlet, Peter De Graef for De Wereldverbeteraar, Wim Opbrouck for Ten Oorlog! and Jan Decleir also for Ten Oorlog!

The nominations for the Theo d'Or Awards for best actress go to Marlies Heuer for Hedda Gabler and Marieke Heebink for Zes personages op zoek.

The nominations for the Arlecchino Award for best supporting actor are Vic de Wachter for Ten Oorlog!, Lucas Van den Eijnde for Ten Oorlog! and Harry van Rijthoven voor Hamlet. The nominations for the Colombina Award for best supporting actress are Joke Tjalsma for Vlees en Bloed, Halina Reyn for Shopping & Fucking and Marie-Louise Stheins for De Wereldverbeteraar.

At this time no definite date has been set for the award ceremony.

--By Maxim Bezembinder
Corespondent The Netherlands/Belgium