“I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty 
because I think one illuminates the other. We're all cruel, aren't we?” 
Martin McDonagh

‘Cripple’ Billy Claven is a teenage orphan on a remote Irish island in the 1930s. Besides being crippled and seriously ill, he is also intelligent – a severe handicap in a community of mentally rigid island dwellers. When a film crew from Hollywood comes to film a documentary on a nearby island, Billy sees a way out. 

“There comes a time in everybody’s life when they have to pluck up their courage and take a chance. Even if you know it’s one in a million, it’s still a chance.”

With their quirky adaptation, De Krippel, Olympique Dramatique won the hearts of theatre audiences in 2001; the production was selected for Het Theaterfestival 2002. “De Krippel is absolutely heavy-handed, utterly and facetiously over the top, superbly raunchy and exaggerated, but because of that also scathingly harsh. It’s about landing hard, stumbling and trying to scramble back up on your feet,” wrote the jury back then. 

Now it’s time for a revision. We are a quarter of a century further, but the themes of social exclusion, the desire for recognition and the building of identity are just as current now as they were then. At a time when public perception and social media have an even greater influence on how people see themselves, De Krippel remains as relevant as ever. 

Olympique Dramatique is bringing the play back to the stage; the original cast will be joined for the occasion by none other than William Boeva.