In the distant past, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam was a theatre organised by social class. Visitors from different classes used their own entrances, stairwells and foyers. The Marnixbordes was part of that arrangement too. Through this stairwell, visitors reached the second balcony of the Grote Zaal. The architecture of the building therefore still tells us something about the society in which the theatre was built at the end of the nineteenth century.