Gods Wegen

Inscrutable is what they are, God’s ways. Often Boulevard’s ways are much easier to comprehend. Thus it would be self-torment not to invite actress Nina de la Parra [1987]. Her highly acclaimed cabaret performance God’s Ways ended in the top 5 of best cabaret shows of 2019 according to Dutch newspaper NRC, and it received five stars from fellow paper Volkskrant.

For that sole individual that doesn’t know Nina: she has a Surinam father and a Dutch mother. “She looks like a bakra – or cheesehead – but her adventures in Suriname are spicier than Madame Jeanette peppers.”

God’s Ways is an autobiographical search of her Christian class in Paramaribo, the colonial past of her Jewish Sephardic forefathers, her experiences in Surinam one hour-hotels, her talking vagina and her search for enlightenment from a winti priest.

Nina knows no self-pity, she is seductive, always feminist, foul-mouthed and intelligent, she doesn’t avoid rage, and she doesn’t spare her own heritage or her generation of women.

For ‘Powered by Boulevard’ Nina plays an adapted version of God’s Ways. She alternates her venomous monologues in fluent Dutch, German, English and Sranan Tongo with jazz & blues songs, supported by the excellent saxophone player Sanne Landvreugd.