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← DE SLOOP VAN DE LIEFDERead in English →

EERSTE BEDRIJF

DE ONTMOETING

Amsterdam — 18 april 2025

Waarin twee gewonde zielen elkaar vinden, een kind door een bos skeelert, en de liefde begint.

SCENE I

Irving Berlinhof. The First Messages.

April 16, 2025 — two days before the first date. They are already talking. Eurydice is stressed about work. Gijsbert is encouraging from the very first hour.

GIJSBERT

You can do it girl!!!!

EURYDICE

Two days before the forest and the hand held, he is already cheering for me. I am freaking out about conference targets and he says: you can do it girl. That is the first true thing he gave me.

She puts down her phone. She is almost smiling.

SCENE II

The Oriental Chinese Restaurant & Amsterdam Bos. April 18th.

The first date. Yasmina between them. Gijsbert — genuinely, unexpectedly funny. Then: Amsterdam Bos. Yasmina on her inline skates. Wheels humming. Fast. Free. Not looking back.

GIJSBERT

Very important question, Yasmina. Spring rolls or dumplings?

YASMINA

Both.

GIJSBERT

Correct answer. I knew immediately I liked you.

Amsterdam Bos. The forest path. Dusk. Without ceremony — his hand finds hers.

EURYDICE

I am in love. I know it the way you know a change of weather. He is not looking at me. He watches Yasmina. Not that he holds my hand — but that his eyes are on my daughter.

SCENE III

The Departure. He Drives to Quintin's Football Match.

He goes. His car disappears. Yasmina stands beside Eurydice, skates under her arm.

YASMINA

He held your hand the whole time.

EURYDICE

She sees everything. She always has. He held my hand. He drove to watch his son. I know only this: I will see him again.

They walk into the evening. Ahead — everything.

End of Act I

← PROLOOGTWEEDE BEDRIJF →

Je leest De Leeseditie, de gratis online versie. Download het volledige manuscript (PDF).

Een heldere, per pagina opgemaakte printversie van de leeseditie — inbegrepen bij een Reader-lidmaatschap.

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Dit is een werk van fictie. Personages, gebeurtenissen en omstandigheden zijn gefictionaliseerd.

DE SLOOP VAN DE LIEFDE — EERSTE BEDRIJF · Ella Tan · lovesreckoning.com · Reading edition, for private study and rehearsal use.

A home for verse.

Poems by Ella Tan. A record of a love that was real — and the words written in its light and its silence.

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A work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue in this play — and in the poems and other writing published on this site — are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, to real events, or to actual places is entirely coincidental and is not intended by the author.

© 2026 Ella Tan. All poems and plays are the original work of the author.Poems are published in the poet’s original English.
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