Since the thorough renovation in 1970, the balcony has been shortened and the pillars have been removed. The seats are now fixed. Those chairs are red, just like the carpet, for example. “You associate theater and bonbonnière with red”, say Natalie Straatman and Hannah Geerdink. Yet that was not the original color. “You used to see a lot of dark spots on the balcony. We don’t know what color it is, because they were black and white photos.” The fact that it is red these days also has a practical reason. “Red absorbs light the best,” explains Straatman.
Despite the fact that the room now has a monumental status, there is little authentic from 1886. “Certain walls and the ceiling,” says Geerdink. “The balcony is old, but not from 1886.” Much dates from the 1900s. Geerdink knows how to describe the room. “It’s a lasagna of time strokes.”
The search for real antiquity in the theater leads beyond the auditorium. A hash. It is on a small platform, next to the right entrance of the room, in front of the entrance to the stage. For occupational health and safety reasons, so that no one falls off. That gate used to be on the balcony, at the front of the coffee and beer house. That gate has been preserved. There is also one at the Engelenbak. Against the window, behind blinds.