The Great Ricardo

A magician named Ricardo is expected to attend an intervention staged by his own family in a desolate seaside town. He decides against going. Instead, he leaves everything behind and swims into the sea. There, he floats slowly away from the world: a master escapist unable to escape his own escape. The Great Ricardo is a performance about an incorrigible dreamer embarking on a life-defining balancing act. What is the line between madness and imagination? How do you keep these things separate on your own? And even if you manage to stay afloat in an infinite sea, how do you find peace with a life comprised of towering waves? In The Great Ricardo, the circus atmosphere of Balkan folk music intertwines with the sounds of a classical string ensemble influenced by Arabic scales. Together with composer Radek Fedyk and the musicians from the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra, Jasper Stoop and Simme Wouters create a musical ocean that undulates, flows, and quiets. ABOUT THE CREATORS: Jasper Stoop and Simme Wouters have been connected to Orkater as Newcomers since 2021. In their philosophical, musical performances, they place forgotten figures with deeply rooted human themes in an absurdist arena. Following "The Things That Are Buried" and "The Usefulness of Edo Dompelmans"—exploring the searching and the useless human respectively—The Great Ricardo, as the finale of their Newcomers trilogy, is a love letter to the wobbly human. ABOUT ORKATER | THE NEWCOMERS: Within the talent development program Orkater/The Newcomers, young musicians and theater makers realize their ideas in musical theater productions that are presented in theaters and festivals across the country. The Great Ricardo is the 30th production of Orkater/The Newcomers. ABOUT ORKATER: Orkater has been the leading musical theater company in the Netherlands for fifty years, telling stories that matter now and where music holds equal value to language. Orkater productions are direct, sensitive, daring, and generous.