Tim Knol

Theater De Winsinghhof sits in a historic building on the Brink in Roden, in the Dutch province of Drenthe, and has been a fixture in the village for more than ten years. It is a small house with 147 seats, and the scale shapes everything about it. The theatre likes to say that the audience practically sits on the performer's lap, and the foyer, where people linger after the show, is part of the evening rather than an afterthought. The building doubles as a cinema, with red seats and a varied film programme for both adults and children. A Filmclub screens a film every second Monday evening. The programme mixes established names with newer talent across theatre, music and children's shows, and each season's lineup is put together with a critical eye. On the music side, recent listings include Izaline Calister, Lakshmi and the trumpeter Eric Vloeimans, who plays here with the accordionist Will Holshouser in 2026. Dasha Beets, Janne Schra and Marlies du Mosch with Mike Bodde also appear among past concerts. Cabaret has long been part of the picture as well. Freek de Jonge, Paul van Vliet and Bert Visscher have all played the room, and Yochem Meijer chose Roden as one of the places for his 2023 try outs. In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Youp van 't Hek opened the season here for an audience of only 30 because of the rules at the time. Despite its village setting, the theatre does not cut corners on the technical side: the seating, sound and equipment are of high quality. It is run by director and programmer Jacob Fröhlich, who took over from Natalie Straatman in 2021. Local volunteers staff the bar, and a loyal group of Business Friends has supported the theatre financially for years, helping it grow stronger.