This is Wim T. Schipper's only theatrical play to have been adapted for television. "Going to the Dogs" does not count as that was a TV registration and not the complete play. "Sans Rancune" features most of the original cast, predominately familiar faces from Schipper's other work. As usual there are scenes of people arguing in a restaurant (right at the start of and presumably not in the stage play). Naturally there is a shot of someone sitting on the lavatory . No scenes set on trains this time around, but Wim T. does his usual voice-cameo, appearing as a voice on the radio as well as the police dispatch and singing a song over the opening credits (in the guise of Jacques Plafond).
The stunningly beautiful Carla Hardy plays Dora, a young woman who is about to go into labor but is still smoking and drinking alcohol like there's no tomorrow. She has invited the two men who are most likely to have fathered her child to her seventh floor flat in Bilthoven to bare witness to the happy occasion. Also present is her cynical best friend Yvette (Janine van Elzakker) who despises both men even before she meets them. The first to arrive is Henk Boshuizen (Dick van den Toorn) an amiable if somewhat clumsy fellow who (in this story) bears an uncanny likeness to pro tennis player Jan Jacobs. This resemblance helps him to get away from a speeding ticket and to acquire a free meal at the Chinese take-way. However the early exchange between him and two policemen also causes some confusion because he is identified as Jan Jacobs first and Henk Boshuizen second.
Possible daddy no 2 is Salco Rirsema (Sjoerd Pleijsier) a right bastard who is only interested in money and talking about sex. He brings along what seems to be the perfect girlfriend for him: ditsy Coby Brink (Stella Verhoef) Alghough Coby refuses to have sex with Salco, she doesn't mind if he gets it elsewhere and most importantly gives him lots of money to further her career as a singer. It isn't until everyone is present that Dora lays the age-old question of Salomo before both men: which one will except the baby as his. As far as Coby is concerned, she's ready to adopt the child immediately, thinking it will be good for her image.
Naturally there is some confusion between the various people (for a while Henk thinks that Salco is Dora's doctor) and everybody has a different view on the situation which must be explained verbally (this is a filmed stage play after all). Along the way the characters also get into a lot of discussion about the meaning of life, specifically what kind of meaning their lives have meant to the world. But it never gets too philosophical for too long. In between there is a slew of quick fire one-liners and of course at one point Henk & Salco get into a fight that almost sees one of them plunging through a broken window (on the seventh floor, remember?)
Unfortunately I am unable to compare Sans Rancune to any of Schippers other plays from the Eighties (such as Waar Gaat Het Over and Kutzwagers). But as a Television play, it works really well, better in fact than a lot of his other hour long one of specials. Although it is quite obvious from the start which of the men is the more likely candidate to claim fatherhood, and the ending is a bit predictable, it still remains very enjoyable throughout and it remains a crying shame that gorgeous Carla Hardy never became a bigger star.
7 out of 10
The stunningly beautiful Carla Hardy plays Dora, a young woman who is about to go into labor but is still smoking and drinking alcohol like there's no tomorrow. She has invited the two men who are most likely to have fathered her child to her seventh floor flat in Bilthoven to bare witness to the happy occasion. Also present is her cynical best friend Yvette (Janine van Elzakker) who despises both men even before she meets them. The first to arrive is Henk Boshuizen (Dick van den Toorn) an amiable if somewhat clumsy fellow who (in this story) bears an uncanny likeness to pro tennis player Jan Jacobs. This resemblance helps him to get away from a speeding ticket and to acquire a free meal at the Chinese take-way. However the early exchange between him and two policemen also causes some confusion because he is identified as Jan Jacobs first and Henk Boshuizen second.
Possible daddy no 2 is Salco Rirsema (Sjoerd Pleijsier) a right bastard who is only interested in money and talking about sex. He brings along what seems to be the perfect girlfriend for him: ditsy Coby Brink (Stella Verhoef) Alghough Coby refuses to have sex with Salco, she doesn't mind if he gets it elsewhere and most importantly gives him lots of money to further her career as a singer. It isn't until everyone is present that Dora lays the age-old question of Salomo before both men: which one will except the baby as his. As far as Coby is concerned, she's ready to adopt the child immediately, thinking it will be good for her image.
Naturally there is some confusion between the various people (for a while Henk thinks that Salco is Dora's doctor) and everybody has a different view on the situation which must be explained verbally (this is a filmed stage play after all). Along the way the characters also get into a lot of discussion about the meaning of life, specifically what kind of meaning their lives have meant to the world. But it never gets too philosophical for too long. In between there is a slew of quick fire one-liners and of course at one point Henk & Salco get into a fight that almost sees one of them plunging through a broken window (on the seventh floor, remember?)
Unfortunately I am unable to compare Sans Rancune to any of Schippers other plays from the Eighties (such as Waar Gaat Het Over and Kutzwagers). But as a Television play, it works really well, better in fact than a lot of his other hour long one of specials. Although it is quite obvious from the start which of the men is the more likely candidate to claim fatherhood, and the ending is a bit predictable, it still remains very enjoyable throughout and it remains a crying shame that gorgeous Carla Hardy never became a bigger star.
7 out of 10