De Kleine Komedie
De Kleine Komedie is Amsterdam’s oldest surviving theatre, and its dates matter: the current building was completed in 1788 after a fire had wiped out the earlier Stadsschouwburg, which later burned again in 1892. What looks intimate today—503 seats—is rooted in the era when the Amstel hosted serious public entertainment. The commission begins with Henry Hope of Hope & Co., who bought ground by the Amstel near Halvemaansteeg in 1784 and brought in the architect Abraham van der Hart. The group behind the project included major Amsterdam financiers such as Balthazar Elias Abbema and Henry Fizeaux—men whose political sympathies could reshape theatre life: in 1787, when the House of Orange was re-established, directors with “Anti-Orange” leanings stepped down. In 1794, the theatre opened as the Théâtre Français sur l’Erwtemarkt, with performances often in French and modeled on Parisian forms. …
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