Royal Theater Toone

The Royal Theatre Toone (French: Théâtre royal de Toone; Dutch: Koninklijk Poppentheater Toone), often simply referred to as Toone, is a folkloric theatre of rod marionettes in central Brussels, Belgium, active since 1830, and the only traditional Brussels puppet theatre still in operation.

Originally founded by Antoine "Toone" Genty in the Marolles/Marollen district of Brussels, since 1966, the theatre has been located at the end of two narrow alleyways, at 66, rue du Marché aux Herbes/Grasmarkt, near the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels' main square). The theatre's premises also house a tavern and a small puppetry museum. The current director is Nicolas Géal, also known as Toone VIII.

The theatre still puts on puppet plays in the Brusselian dialect (also sometimes referred to as Marollian), the traditional Brabantian dialect of Brussels. Performances are also given in other languages interspersed with Brusselian, always in the spirit of zwanze, a sarcastic form of folk humour considered typical of Brussels.

Excerpt from Wikipedia: Royal Theatre Toone · CC BY-SA 4.0