The Tulip Fever

About

A master sham of Amsterdam, or Never underestimate the flower power! 

The Tulip Fever is an adaptation of the classic comedy Spanish Brabander (Spaanschen Brabander, 1618) written by Shakespeare’s contemporary Gerbrand Breder (1585-1618), a master playwright of the Dutch Golden Age. The play describes the machinations with tulip bulbs – which in 1637 led to what is considered the first speculative bubble – set against the backdrop of the picaresque poetics of swindlers at the time. The text is skillfully interspersed with typical attributes of real capitalism: quick money, monetization of human relationships, profitable investments, madness of crowds, political scheming, and the notorious uppishness of public figures. In fact, Jerolimo orchestrates this major investment campaign, targeted on Amsterdam bourgeoisie, secretly amidst a never-ending party at Madame Beatrice’s brothel. Will the (mostly sober) people of Amsterdam see through his cynicism before it is too late? Will they come to their senses before realising that they served him not only as a joke, but also as a source of profit? And that it destroys people’s souls? Mhm?! Hardly.

In clear comedic exaggeration, the play elaborates on the theme of financial machinations, the desire to get rich quick, and, in fact, also the principles of crypto trading. Based on a concrete historical event, it shows that the desire for astronomical financial gains through a kind of “pyramid scheme” is far from new. Indeed, the term Tulip Fever (or Tulip Mania) refers to one of the earliest speculative bubbles, which affected the Netherlands in the first half of the 17th century. It started with cross-breeding of colour varieties of tulips, until then an overlooked flower native to Turkey, thanks to which the interest in the bulbs rocketed to unprecedented levels. Only as late as in the twentieth century, it was discovered that the spectacular intricate lines and flame-like streaks on the petals were actually due to the bulbs being infected with a virus...