The Council of State suspended the closure of the cultural sector on Tuesday, which means that theaters and cinemas may reopen their doors. The reopening is still subject to the decision of the Consultation Committee and the publication of the Royal Decree, but that now seems to be a detail. Many cultural institutions are therefore already in full preparation for a reopening. Not everyone can get back to work right away, though.
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THEATER
• It’s going well in Antwerp Torch Theater open its doors again from Sunday. ‘We want to see the series of performances by Christmas children resume as soon as possible,” says director Sam Verhoeven. ‘We will move the performances that were canceled this week to February.’
According to Verhoeven, the reopening is ‘only’ planned on Sunday because a lot of practical matters have to be arranged again. “We need to call people who were told that their performance had already been postponed to say they can now come and watch on the original date,” he says. ‘It’s about 200 people a day because the performances were sold out. But of course we are happy that we can get back to work.’
• Opera Ballet Flanders will start again from January 12th. The next performance is the premiere of Liebestod at Opera Gent. This is followed by four performances of Bohemian from January 14.
• Still in Antwerp resumes Theater house Wednesday evening already in the Bourla the performance The sheep song by FC Bergman for an audience of 200 people. The piece is still scheduled for Thursday evening. ‘After the decision of the Council of State last night, we immediately started calling around’, says spokeswoman Leen Van de Put. “Everyone is eager to start again.”
• Kamal Kharmach playing tonight his year-end conference in the Antwerp Arenbergschouwburg, while theater group Berlin immediately gets back to work in the cultural center of Mortsel with the performance True copy. The Studio in Antwerp will resume some youth performances from 5 January and the extensive January tour of Hullep by Peter De Graef and Maaike Cafmeyer can still start a day later.
MOVIE THEATERS
• Kinepolis will not reopen until January 1. “We had just prepared everything for the closure and now we are making full preparations for a reopening,” said spokeswoman Anneleen Van Troos. “It’s not that easy that we can just turn the light back on.” The staff, among other things, must be mobilized again. It is a true rollercoaster, according to Van Troos. ‘We are going to work again with personnel planning, programming, ticket sales, and so on.’
The spokeswoman cannot say exactly what the financial impact of the short-term closure is. We can’t put a number on that. But the Christmas holidays are a peak period for us, so it’s a shame that we had to close for a few days,” she says. ‘We hope for more stable waters in the near future.’
• UGC, the second largest cinema chain in Belgium, will welcome visitors to its cinemas again from Thursday. During the day, the programming will be added to the website again.
• Not only the Antwerp theater halls, but also various city cinemas are preparing for a reopening. Cinema Cartoon’s behind the town hall did that immediately on Tuesday evening, Cinema Light in Antwerp and Mechelen reopens on Wednesday and The Cinema (van De Studio) at the Antwerp South is doing everything it can to open again from Thursday.
• Cinema ZED in Leuven will open its doors again on 1 January. The second branch of Cinema ZED, in Hasselt, will reopen on 2 January. The halls there are only open on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. ‘We want to start the new year with a fresh start,’ says Maxime Vangompel of Cinema ZED. ‘Opening again now would also not be feasible: we have to prepare the programming again. Everyone is welcome again from January. We do expect that we will have to take capacity limitations into account.’
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