1/2 Director Jan-Hein Sloessen of Schouwburg De Kring (photo: Erik Peeters).
Whatever happens ‘The Show Must Go On’ they thought when the De Kring was renovated. While the existing theater in the center of Roosendaal is undergoing a complete metamorphosis in the coming months, a pop-up theater will be set up a little further in a former postsorter center.
For a year and a half, the location of the circle in the EKP building must serve as a theater. “In fact, all the performances, with some adjustments here and there, can continue. We have of course taken into account which versions are suitable for the programming,” explains theater director Jan-Hein Sloessen.
The building next to the track on the Kade in Roosendaal served as an expedition junction Post (EKP) for many years. The building has been empty for the last ten years. Inside the space still has the ‘industrial’ appearance of yesteryear.
“This is of course not a theater with plush seats and dark curtains that people are used to. It is much less neat here with concrete walls and thick tubes of the air extraction. We deliberately leave this in sight so that visitors also real ‘urban“Getting feeling,” says director Sloessen.
According to alderman Koenraad, it was also important for the municipality that the performances would continue in a different place when the circle is renovating. “We did not want the theater to stand still. A city like Roosendaal needs that cultural excitement.”
The temporary design of the EKP building costs 1.3 million euros, eight tons more than was budgeted. “This is of course to. But it is worth it because everything we do now is also an investment for the long term. We have enough ideas about this that we will think about when this bustle is over here,” says Alderman Koenraad.
In the meantime, the pop-up theater in the EKP building is slowly taking shape. The stands are set up in a slight U-shape in the large former sorting room. In the middle a wooden stage is laid over the concrete floor. Three sea containers in a different location in the building have been converted into bars where visitors can go for a drink.
“We have six weeks to turn it into a real theater, but that will certainly work out. The programming was still quite exciting because of course we have no theater tower of thirty meters high here. Yet I did not want to miss the theater performance ‘The Wizard of Oz’. That is why people can now see this performance with our colleagues in Bergen op Zoom,” explains director Sloessen.
“Herman van Veen really wants to come to the circle.”
Also big names including Herman van Veen will be in the Pop-up Schouwburg next season. Jan-Hein Sloessen: “When I approached his impresariat, they were immediately enthusiastic because this environment fits in the style of Herman:” We adjust the show because Herman van Veen really wants to come to the circle, “I was told. That is fantastic.”
The first performance of the circle in the EKP building is planned for 12 September. At the beginning of 2027 the theater moved back to its own place in the city.
