Baar Amsterdam - 28.12

A production featuring the music of Jacques Brel

There are few places that endure on the horizon of the world: places where people meet, meet again and find themselves anew. It is better when wine flows in these places, when music flows and when tender words flow—words that move the soul deeply.

“Baar Amsterdam” is a place and a moment where the luminous sound of Jacques Brel’s world meets the question of everything one must live through and go through for the beauty we embrace to be born. A pool of light. A microphone. A grim-faced virtuoso. “Ne me quitte pas” (“Don’t Leave Me”), he sings, his soul laid bare, his face glistening with the sweat of exertion.

Jacques Brel’s aim and focus was to tell stories whose essence was always built on emotion. Brel made himself the direct conduit for his work, reaching people through words and song. He let his soul resonate with everything he knew and had felt.

This production has the same aim: to take the audience on a journey to the outer reaches of the human soul and touch the corners from which we are stitched together. But it also asks: would we be stitched together at all without an artist—without a person—opening themselves up and burning outwardly and inwardly?

The production moves from the light, elevated and soul-stirring into the depths and even the unsettling, and does not shy away from uncomfortable questions: which dark side is inevitable, and which justification is unjustifiable?

The production’s setting is a salon-like meeting place. Brel’s songs are theatrical in form, in an elevated way. Above all, wine should flow in “Baar Amsterdam”.

On stage: Jarmo Reha, Jaak Lutsoja (accordion) and Aili Nael

Author and director: Jarmo Reha
Artists: Ulvi Tiit and Allan Appelberg
Dramaturgical assistance: Laur Kaunissaare
Song lyric translator: Indrek Koff
Sound designer: Lauri Kaldoja
Lighting designer: Sasha Mirson

Premiere: 13 December 2025 at Ekspeditsiooni stuudio Krulli majas