Romana Vrede gets Toneelschrijfprijs 2024 For ‘Time will teach us’

Romana Vrede has received the Toneelschrijfprijs 2024 for her text Time will teach us. The prize was awarded on April 4, 2025 during the opening of the Shakespeare is Dead Festival in Flemish Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam.

In the text Time will teach us Honor Romana Peace The Helds Under De Slavel Meeted. Those who rebelled against the slave trade. « Staying stories, » wrote NRC in the Review of the performance from 2023in which peace played the text itself.

Peace also honors her mother, who died in 2020. « That painful event lies among every beautiful memory and witty anecdote, » wrote NRC. « Every loose story that starts to tell peace, led irrevocably back to her mother, until she no longer gets down to discover the loss. What would she have found of the Dutch apologies for slavery past, for example, peace wonders. She pronounces the words she still wanted to say to her mother, » All you have thought, for always, felt the stinging, triling in me « 

According to the jury, the text is « so compelling, comprehensive and written down with great care and sense of rhythm, that you feel with every word: this is immensely important. » And: « Every word is obviously crucial in this flawless, personal text. It is a text that you forced to look away from a piece of history with tenderness, fervor, literary finesse, impressive knowledge of things and an irresistible musical language to no longer look away from a piece of history.

During the presentation, Romana Vrede received a certificate and 10,000 euros prize money. The other nominees were Giovanni Brand (for Singer without a people), Esther Duysker, for The Story of Travis and BOG, for Bog.2). They each received 1,000 euros.

The jury of the Toneelrijfprijs 2024 – with reviewer Els Van Steenberghe, writer/lawyer Rachida Lamrabet and writer Thomas Verbogt – assessed 54 submissions.

The stage writing prize is usually awarded in September, but there was a delay because organizer Fonds Performing Arts had insufficient time available for it last year.

The prize is a joint initiative of Literature Flanders, the Nederlands Letterenfonds, the Taalunie and Fonds Performing Arts, with the support of Sabam for Culture, the Lira Fund and De Seuters.

Earlier winners were Casper Vandeputte and Vincent van der Valk, for Immense (2020), Mathieu Wijdeven and Raoul de Jong, for The why answered (2022) and Maarten van Hinte, for Queen of disco (2023).

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