NORTH SIDE STORY

NORTH SIDE STORY

An action musical about love in a working-class neighbourhood full of newcomers

The NDSM-werf in Amsterdam-Noord will be the stage for the open-air spectacle NORTH SIDE STORY this summer. YoungGangsters will perform and sing this contemporary version of the Romeo and Juliet story. In a metropolitan working-class neighbourhood where wealthy yuppen are considered intruders, a love blossoms that transcends the conflict between the population groups. Him: a contractor’s son who, out of necessity, still comfortably lives with his parents. Her: an ambitious, idealistic resident researcher from a very expensive new-build apartment. In a sparkling mix of poetry and humour, magnified fiction and recognizable reality, YoungGangsters shows how the brand new lovers must hold their own amidst polarization and prejudices, conservatism and desire for change. 

NORTH SIDE STORY exposes tension between ‘’old’’ and ‘’new’’ neighbourhood residents - between pride and transition, meat and veggie, beer and kombucha. Freely inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and the musical film West Side Story, Jibbe Willems wrote a libretto with romantic exchanges, dramatic complications and sung confrontations. An action musical in YoungGangster style, full of colourful characters, raw spectacle and a slapstick fight now and then. Let yourself be carried away in this search for how we, despite differences, can rediscover our place in the city.