Špilberk Castle

This summer will be colourful and brimming with culture. The theatre scene will not be lagging behind the many concerts and music festivals offering wild entertainment. Visitors to large cities around the Czech Republic will have several opportunities to make the mild summer evenings more pleasant by taking in entertaining and serious plays performed by Czech and foreign companies.

To traditional theatres in search of tradition

The season at the National Theatre this year is without a doubt unique. This is to say that precisely 130 years have passed since the first opening of the building of the National Theatre in 1881. The theatre will be celebrating with a varied programme on all of its stages. Five plays will premiere this year, of which we must at least mention Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and the classic work by A. P. Chekhov, The Seagull, which will be performed in The Estates Theatre. The famous Cinderella is an eagerly anticipated ballet premiere, this time the charming version by J. Ch. Maillot. Opera will also be prominent, with performances for example of Wagner’s Parsifal, The Nightingale by Igor Stravinsky and Ariadna by Bohuslav Martinů.

The National Theatre in Brno will have a no-less-interesting programme. The audience can for example look forward to Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well or Moliére’s The Schemings of Scapin. A new ballet premiere of Dangerous Liaisons will be performed here, based on the very successful novel by the French writer Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Opera lovers will be able to look forward to The Marriage of Figaro or Puccini’s Turandot.

In the open air in search of classics and improvisation

As is now the tradition, the Summer Shakespeare Festival will also be taking place from June to August this year in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Audiences will be able to enjoy classic works such as The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV or Romeo and Juliet in the open air in the beautiful surroundings of Prague Castle, in the courtyard of the ancient Špilberk Castle and in the arena theatre at Silesian-Ostrava Castle.

One of the largest theatre events, which only comes around every four years, will also be taking place this year – the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Prague will become a centre for world theatre from 16 to 26 June. Theatre artists, designers and architects from more than 70 countries will be presenting their work to the general public here. The main venues will be the Trade Fair Palace and the piazzetta of the National Theatre.

We must not forget the no-less-important jubilee tenth year of the Fringe Festival, which will be held in Prague at the end of May and beginning of June. Over the ten years of its existence, this theatre festival has found a wide Czech and foreign audience, which returns to the event every year to enjoy performances by professional and amateur theatre companies from many different countries in theatre auditoriums and cafes.

If your travels lead you to the beautiful historical city of Český Krumlov, take in a play, opera or ballet at the famous revolving theatre.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of interesting theatre opportunities. Several small theatres offer engaging and interesting shows, so if you are tired of wandering around the red-hot backstreets of the city, consider a visit to one of them.