How Noufri Bachdim spread his wings

Noufri Bachdim graduated at HKU Theatre in 2016. And today, he is a successful theatre producer, director and artistic director of Studio Figur. This Utrecht-based theatre group has just received the multi-year grant from the national Performing Arts Fund.

Studio Figur will be financially supported for the coming four years by both the City of Utrecht and the Performing Arts Fund. The committee describes Studio Figur as ‘a promising company, headed by the gradually developing director Noufri Bachdim and the adept designer and puppet maker Pluck Venema.'

Down in a hole

After his graduation at Theatre in Education, Noufri was drifting for a while. "I didn’t want to become a teacher; I wanted to enter the professional field. That didn’t happen straight away, and I sort of fell into a hole. I ended up doing all sorts of different jobs: from being a delivery driver for an online supermarket to PR assistant for a pork company."

Things started to take off when Noufri started acting at theatre groups as volunteer and often assisted directors there. Likeminds—a metropolitan development platform for theatre-makers—eventually asked Noufri to create his own production. “Held” (“Hero”, the first show Pluck Venema and I made as Studio Figur) was received so well that many theatre companies wanted to collaborate with us afterwards.’

Pluck Venema in "Toen mijn vader de nacht in vloog"

Studio Figur

Noufri and Pluck (alumna of Theatre Design) met each other during a project in which both of their graduation paths collaborated. ‘When I was looking for a theatre designer during my graduate year, I eventually stumbled into Pluck. From them on, about ten years ago now, we’ve been making theatre plays together. We founded our own theatre group in 2018.’ Studio Figur makes poetic and sensory puppet theatre for kids, which are also appealing for adults. With physical play, puppet theatre, live music and film, we tell stories centred on topical issues.

Hitting the bullseye

When Noufri was orienting himself on what to study and found HKU, it was like he hit the bullseye. “They welcomed and I felt as if I found my place right away.’ Among the lessons he took from this student years, is the interdisciplinary means of working.’ It’s at the core of what I’m currently doing. Whether you work together with a composer, light engineer or costume designer; because you learn how to cooperate with various disciplines during your studies, you understand the needs of others. It’s okay if you can’t do something, as long as you understand it.’

Another aspect he inherited from HKU is the human touch in his works. ‘The warmth, the family feeling, that’s what I also try to incorporate in how I work within my own theatre group. I want everyone to feel good during the process, and check-in with everyone regularly to see how they are. That’s really what defines me as a creator.’

Image from "Toen mijn vader de nacht in vloog"

Different stories

But there’s more that characterises Noufri. For instance, his productions don’t appeal to rationality; instead, he much rather activates the imagination, evoking emotions and fantasy. "I think I have different stories to tell compared to many others in the field. Because of my roots—Dutch and Indonesian, with an Islamic background—I tell stories that are rarely finding their way to the theatre."

When my father flew into the night

Studio Figur is currently going acroos the Dutch theaters with the play “Toen mijn vader de nacht in vloog” (When my father flew into the night. A surreal fairy tale about the courage to stick your neck out, to spread your wings and fly. Using (film) images, music, and puppetry, it takes you on an adventure beyond the walls of the asylum centre, beyond the borders of the Netherlands, in search of Nour’s father.

More about Noufri at www.noufri.com

See Noufri in action