Claudia Blanco García Module 1 Cultural Studies 2020/2021
Partim Assignment 2: Stop Acting Now
Brief discussion on the film Stop Acting Now
Throughout this film we could see how artists and activists take part in the process of
representing and diffusing the effects of some of the current societal issues. In this case,
the actors focused on the role of the arts – by questioning it – and also the impact of the
different art practices in society. A lot is expected from the arts and culture, and in this
film the actors have been critical about the different arguments that can be given for
and against the importance of art practices.
To do so, they stopped acting – or pretended to have stopped – and tried to be socially
engaged in different ways:
Maartje Remmers, the first actor that appears in the film, designed a project and started
a group called “The Basic Optimists” in which she visited poor neighbourhoods to give
them personal assistance, to help them individually . Walter Bart was more interested
in the process than in the result itself. He wanted to act in public since he thought that
with specific actions you can directly influence public opinion. This is the reason why he
performed several actions, while the others tried to develop and put in practice one
more significant action. Matjis Jansen developed a gardener app and started to look for
investors. In one of the scenes of the film, we can perceive that he was interested in
working along with the rest of his colleagues instead of working on a project on his own.
He argued that it would be a better start for a social engagement and he also believed
that group work would have a bigger impact. Marleen Scholten created a kind of “Tear
Bar”: sessions where people cried together, in order to do a kind of catharsis, a cleansing
of emotional tensions through arts. In her opinion, negativity should have more space
in society and people should stop pretending that their lives are full of happiness and
joy all the time.
From my point of view, they tried to showcase different ways in which people can be
socially engaged outside of art practices – the theatre. However, this turn from
performing plays to their new way of being engaged in social commitment brought
about some problems that they had to face.
First of all, they realised that the way they were trying to be socially engaged takes much
more time and effort than what they thought. For instance, Maartje Remmers got
frustrated several times because of her incapacity to fight against how the rules work,
and at some point she becomes too involved in the individuals’ situation to help them.
Some of them also showed signs of struggle to come up with an idea, and their ideal way
of working collided with those of the others. Moreover, they doubt the actual impact of
their performances in real life, and they passed through several arguments between
them for this reason.
In the end, the entire group had doubts about the impact of their performances. Has
their work had any significance? Is making theatre plays really enough? One common
1
Partim Assignment 2: Stop Acting Now
Brief discussion on the film Stop Acting Now
Throughout this film we could see how artists and activists take part in the process of
representing and diffusing the effects of some of the current societal issues. In this case,
the actors focused on the role of the arts – by questioning it – and also the impact of the
different art practices in society. A lot is expected from the arts and culture, and in this
film the actors have been critical about the different arguments that can be given for
and against the importance of art practices.
To do so, they stopped acting – or pretended to have stopped – and tried to be socially
engaged in different ways:
Maartje Remmers, the first actor that appears in the film, designed a project and started
a group called “The Basic Optimists” in which she visited poor neighbourhoods to give
them personal assistance, to help them individually . Walter Bart was more interested
in the process than in the result itself. He wanted to act in public since he thought that
with specific actions you can directly influence public opinion. This is the reason why he
performed several actions, while the others tried to develop and put in practice one
more significant action. Matjis Jansen developed a gardener app and started to look for
investors. In one of the scenes of the film, we can perceive that he was interested in
working along with the rest of his colleagues instead of working on a project on his own.
He argued that it would be a better start for a social engagement and he also believed
that group work would have a bigger impact. Marleen Scholten created a kind of “Tear
Bar”: sessions where people cried together, in order to do a kind of catharsis, a cleansing
of emotional tensions through arts. In her opinion, negativity should have more space
in society and people should stop pretending that their lives are full of happiness and
joy all the time.
From my point of view, they tried to showcase different ways in which people can be
socially engaged outside of art practices – the theatre. However, this turn from
performing plays to their new way of being engaged in social commitment brought
about some problems that they had to face.
First of all, they realised that the way they were trying to be socially engaged takes much
more time and effort than what they thought. For instance, Maartje Remmers got
frustrated several times because of her incapacity to fight against how the rules work,
and at some point she becomes too involved in the individuals’ situation to help them.
Some of them also showed signs of struggle to come up with an idea, and their ideal way
of working collided with those of the others. Moreover, they doubt the actual impact of
their performances in real life, and they passed through several arguments between
them for this reason.
In the end, the entire group had doubts about the impact of their performances. Has
their work had any significance? Is making theatre plays really enough? One common
1
