Andrew Girvan

You can read my five-part blog about visiting Amsterdam, created entirely using my iPhone 3 at girvgoesdutch.tumblr.com

Having spotted in my Rough Guide and cycled past it on my bike tour I was determined to consume the theatrical offering of Boom Chicago, an English language comedy/improv/cabaret venue in the heart of the city’s cultural centre.

There isn’t much English theatre on offer in Amsterdam, and neither there should be, if a culture is to be represented, examined and better understood through traffic on the stage then it should be done in the mother tongue, how else is it to speak to its audience? It could be argued that Boom Chicago fits within this statement as more tourists performing to tourists. The mainly American accented cast had a Dutch speaker amongst them and made enough Dutch language and political jokes to keep locals feeling that they were in on something the rest of us weren’t, but the main comedy offering was one of universal appeal and was genuinely funny.