Chassé Cinema

Eric Leeuwenberg on October 25, 2017 at 3:17 pm

“The” film theater of Breda! 365 days of film a year and weekly a new premiere and special movie events. The theater offers films in three rooms as well as theater, opera, dance, music, musical and cabaret. This diversity is unique in the Netherlands. It has over 400.000 visitors, 500 theatershows and 3400 movieshows per season.

The Chassé Theater, designed by architect Herman Hertzberger, has a rolling roof. The architect was inspired by a sculpture of a reclining woman. The theater is named after General David Hendrik Chassé (Tiel, 1765 – Breda, 1849) who fought both for and against napoleon and during the Belgian independance in 1830.

Vision: We have everything in our house. Beauty of the purest water and amusement of reinforced concrete. We unlock you a partymood while you have nothing to party. We’re gonna crack your brains, when you thought you ’d digged everything. We bring wooden cloves to the swing and cool frogs to cry. Breda deserves the very best and you deserve to be very happy.

Mission: The Chassé Theater presents and promotes performing arts and artistic films in all their appearances, bringing beauty, emotion and depth to a wide audience from Breda and beyond. This happens with a hospitable and involved staff. The building is exploided optimal to cultural- and business operation. The programming, service and ambiance are distinctive and of high quality.

History: The first signs of a small improvised theater were on the Kaatsbaan around the year 1727. It was enlarged by 1769. By 1802 a new theater opened in the Millitary Hospital. It burned down in 1814. The next theater openend soon after in De Oude Vest named as “Comedie”. This theater lasted until 1880 when a new theater was build at the Van Cooth Plein trading as “Concordia”. In World War I it housed Belgian refugees. In Worldwar II the nazi’s and the NSB occupied it for propaganda purposes. In 1945 the allied forced partied the victory. In 1953 it sheltered flood victims. In 1964 the municipality financed urgent renovations. Inevitable the theater becamed outdated again by 1980 and suffered financial problems. The concert hall “Het Turfschip” and the cinema “De Beyerd” had the same difficulties. The idea to join the three locations was born. An official plan to execute this was presented by 1989. Years of difficulties, struggles and argues between planmakers and local governors followed until 1995 a brand new theater designed by Herman Herzberger opened it’s doors. Costs: over 25 million euros. Nowadays, it still is an architectical miracle, because every detail of the building is thought over. In those days it was the largest theater of the country and architecture critics all over the world took a visit. A third cinemaroom was added by 2002.

Guided tours on saturdays: Make a reservation on their website www.chasse.nl