Theater Carré

This theatre was built as a circus. Oscar Carré’s company played here in the winter months and toured for the rest of the year, and the building stood empty.

The Carrés were circus people. From 1879 Oscar Carré gave winter shows in Amsterdam in a temporary wooden building with a stone front. He wanted something permanent, and the talks with the city dragged on.

Then, on 8 December 1881, the Ringtheater in Vienna burned and hundreds of people in the audience died. After that, Carré got his building permit. He raised the 300,000 guilders he needed by selling bonds. Piles were driven from April 1887, and eight months later the building was ready.

It opened in December 1887. At first it was used only in winter, for the circus. From 1893 a producer rented it in the summer for variety shows, and little by little the circus building became a theatre for every kind of popular entertainment. Oscar Carré died in 1911, and his circus gave its last show here. In 1920 the name was changed to Theater Carré.

In 1956 Porgy and Bess had its Dutch premiere here.

Then the building was nearly lost. In the late 1960s its owner wanted to pull it down. Artists protested, and the city refused permission. In 1977 the city bought the building, and ten years later, at the centenary, it was given the title Royal.

The circus still comes back. Every December since 1985 the World Christmas Circus has played here.