Theatercafé Hemels

Theaterkerk Hemels is a former Dutch Reformed church in the village of Twisk, in the municipality of Medemblik in North Holland. The building was bought at the end of 2017 by René Smit and Gerda Blom, who set out to turn it into a place for theatre and live music. The name plays on the Dutch word for heavenly, which suits a venue where the audience sits in a converted house of worship. Because it is a church interior and not a purpose built hall, the room has a character that visiting artists tend to comment on. Performers who have played there describe it as a beautiful place, and one fingerstyle guitarist reported playing to a packed house on a Saturday before returning for two more shows on the Sunday, an afternoon and an evening performance. That kind of weekend run points to a venue built around intimate, seated concerts, where an acoustic act can fill the room and be heard in close quarters. The programme leans toward listening music and smaller scale touring acts rather than loud club nights. The sources mention Caribbean jazz in the form of Van Merwijk Music Machine, and the Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen has performed there. A group touring a Reverso programme has also listed the church as one of its stops in the run up to Christmas. Together these bookings show a small rural theatre in a village setting that draws national and international musicians, which is not something you would expect from a place the size of Twisk.