Stadsschouwburg Nijmegen

Stadsschouwburg Nijmegen opened on 8 April 1961 with Euripides' Herakles, performed by the Arnhem company Toneelgroep Theater. The building's concrete, brick and glass volumes form a conspicuous part of the city's post-war reconstruction at Keizer Karelplein. Its raised foyer faces the square through a broad glazed front, while the auditorium and stage tower occupy contrasting forms behind it. A major renovation in 2003 renewed seating and stage machinery. The theatre has long shared an operating organisation with Concertgebouw De Vereeniging; since 2011 the two venues have been managed through the Keizer Karel Podia foundation. Nijmegen, which claims to be the oldest city in the Netherlands, was heavily bombed in 1944 and largely rebuilt, and the Stadsschouwburg serves that reconstructed centre as its main receiving house. Dutch drama companies, dance, cabaret and touring opera all pass through it — Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia" and Bizet's "Carmen" among the productions that travel the country's network of civic theatres. A large student population and the nearby German border give the theatre an audience wider than the city itself.