WELCOME TO THE SIERLIJKE SNOES CAT CAFÉ!

NAZARETH COMMUNITY THEATRE

In November 2025, the fictional cat café Sierlijke Snoes was brought to life at the Nazareth community centre during a series of special charity evenings! These evenings were actually performances by Buurttheater Maastricht, in which the audience was drawn into the illusion of a real charity evening because it was an interactive show where the audience could actually win prizes. With the auditoriums almost sold out on each occasion, the atmosphere was electric from the very first minute. The audience participated enthusiastically and, to my surprise, began singing along spontaneously during the first emotional song performed live by one of our actresses. As is customary at Buurttheater Maastricht, I, as director, set to work alongside community worker Nel Knapen on the life stories and preferences of the performers. There was a lot of improvisation during the rehearsal process, and based on the scenes that emerged, I wrote a script that the actresses really got their teeth into. I also noticed that the ladies would spontaneously start singing folk songs, even when we took a break… so songs definitely had to be included in the performance… I was so proud of them when they managed to learn everything by heart, because there were sometimes quite substantial chunks of text and for some it was their first time on stage. 2BTM Nazareth, poster ‘Kattencafé Sierlijke Snoes’ 2025. With CAT CAFÉ SIERLIJKE SNOES, we achieved what we had set out to do: we saw performers who were in their element and able to carry THEIR show with confidence, and evenings of theatre in which the entire audience could escape to a world full of fantasy, fun and togetherness….

Inge Huybrechts & Nel Knapen