Art altering society

Boy Jonkergouw

Boy Jonkergouw is a Dutch director, playwright and producer that focuses on human rights, social (climate) injustice and neurodiversity. His work addresses the struggle of people that are poorly or wrongly understood by society.

Sometimes he uses a verbatim and hyper realistic style, but just as often his theatre is humorous and absurd: humour is the lubricant for hard to swallow subjects. In his play Dangerous Names he brought on stage both a Srebrenica survivor and a veteran from the Dutch UN-battalion that was co-responsible for the death of her father. Dangerous Names changed the narrative on Srebrenica in Dutch media and education. The main perspective shifted from the ethnocentric story of Dutchbat, to that of the Bosnian survivors and victims. A few pages of Malmberg’s new history books for Dutch highschools is dedicated to Dangerous Names, in the context of perspectives on genocide. Aside from his own work, Boy aims to (co-)produce and sell both national and international artists that share his belief that performing arts can start revolutions: the roots of change lie within our imagination!