Voorwaarts - Esmay Usmany

Theater Zuidplein is a cultural complex in the Rotterdam Zuid district, commissioned by the City of Rotterdam and opened to the public in late 2021. The building was designed by De Zwarte Hond and houses two theatre halls, a café restaurant, and a branch of the Rotterdam Public Library, making it one of the more genuinely multifunctional venues in the city. The main auditorium was designed by Studio RAP, whose work on the space focused specifically on the acoustic geometry of the interior, producing a faceted surfaces design that has drawn attention beyond the Netherlands for its approach to sound quality in a flexible setting. The programming at Theater Zuidplein covers a wide range of formats and genres. Alongside theatre productions, the venue hosts concerts that stretch from singer songwriters and world music to jazz and fusion. BassFest 2025 brought together Dave Holland Trio, Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers, and Moroccan gnawa musician Mehdi Nassouli across two evenings, illustrating the international reach the programme occasionally achieves. Local and emerging Dutch acts also feature regularly, including EP release shows, Dutch language music and comedy crossover acts, and recurring DLD Music showcases that give the venue a consistent presence in the Rotterdam live music calendar. Its location in Rotterdam Zuid, a neighbourhood that has historically had fewer dedicated cultural institutions than the city centre, gives Theater Zuidplein a particular role in the local cultural landscape. The combination of library, food and drink, and a varied performance programme is clearly designed to draw in a broad community audience rather than a specialist one, and the venue functions as much as a daytime public space as an evening entertainment destination.