Klaipėda City Municipality
Klaipėda
drama theatre and historic theatre building
Teatro Street 2, Klaipėda
55.70803, 21.13099
1.5-3 hours for a performance; 10-20 minutes to view the building and square
according to the repertoire; for the exterior, an evening on Theatre Square
State Theatre Klaipėda Branch, Klaipėda Musical Comedy Theatre, Klaipėda Musical Drama Theatre
Klaipėda Drama Theatre on Theatre Square
Klaipėda Drama Theatre stands on Theatre Square, so it cannot be separated from one of the port city's most important public spaces. Even if you are not going to a performance, the building is an essential part of a Klaipėda Old Town route, and the theatre's official history calls it the oldest surviving theatre building in Lithuania - built on the former marshes of the Danė estuary.
In the Register of Cultural Property the object is listed as a Theatre (code 1189, Teatro St 2) and protected as a state-safeguarded structure of regional significance. The Register notes the Historicist style, the building's nineteenth-century origin, and several later reconstructions, so the theatre matters as an architectural monument, not only as a repertory stage.
From the Comedy House to the 1818-1819 masonry theatre
The exact date of Klaipėda's first theatre is unknown. Eighteenth-century town plans mark a square-plan Comedy House near the castle moats; some authors claim a theatre operated there as early as 1777. In 1803 the merchant Wachsen set up a theatre in an old warehouse, and after 1818 the newcomer Ulbrich opened a 200-seat hall in a temporary wooden building.
On the initiative of the merchants Rupel and Woitkowitsch, a shareholders' company acquired a plot, and at the end of 1818 a new masonry theatre was completed on the present site. It was a two-storey Classicist building with an attic; the main facade had a portico with four pairs of columns and a triangular pediment facing what is now Teatro Street.
The 1854 fire, the 1857 rebuilding, and 1895-1898 Neoclassicism
In 1854 the theatre burned down in a great town fire. The merchant Mason bought the ruins and in 1857 built a larger rectangular-plan structure at his own expense on the old foundations; its three facades still stand today, and the main facade has faced Theatre Square ever since. In 1893 the building passed into town ownership - a 30,000-mark loan was provided by the merchant Ludwig Hohorst.
The 1895-1898 reconstruction gave the building Neoclassical features: a projecting bay with a recessed loggia was added at the centre of the main facade, and a relief with the coat of arms of Klaipėda was set into the pediment tympanum. Box-office annexes with two balconies rose on the sides of the bay, and the theatre could hold about 800 spectators. In 1912 the Simon Dach fountain with the Ännchen von Tharau statue (sculptor Alfred Kuhne) was installed on the square in front of the theatre, and in 1928 the interior gained Expressionist features to a design by Paul Giesing.
The theatre balcony and the 1939 episode
A painful twentieth-century episode is linked with the theatre building and the square: it is widely recounted that in March 1939, after Germany annexed the Klaipėda region, Adolf Hitler spoke from the theatre balcony to a crowd gathered on the square. This account is constantly mentioned in the town's history, so Theatre Square is a place of memory for both culture and twentieth-century politics.
In the same period, after 1939, the Ännchen von Tharau fountain was also demolished. Its present statue was restored in 1989 by the sculptor Hans Haacke, so what stands on the square today is a reconstruction, not the original - another sign of how the years of war and occupation changed the port city's face.
The Lithuanian professional stage since 1935
The professional Lithuanian theatre history of Klaipėda began in 1935, when the troupe of the State Theatre's Šiauliai branch - closed in 1934 by order of the Ministry of Education - was transferred to the port city. The first performance, Kazys Inčiūra's "Vincas Kudirka" (director Antanas Sutkus), was staged on 20 September 1935, and in 1936 an acting school was founded at the theatre.
The institution's name changed several times: in 1935-1939 it was the State Theatre Klaipėda Branch, in 1945-1949 the Klaipėda Musical Comedy Theatre, in 1949-1951 the Klaipėda Musical Drama Theatre, and from 1951 the present name of Klaipėda Drama Theatre took hold. These names show how the stage, the repertoire, and the institutional identity changed.
Reconstructions, box office, and visiting
Studies in 1975-1986 found the building in a dangerous condition, so in 1986-1990 a fundamental reconstruction was carried out to a design by the architects Saulius Manomaitis and Izidorius Žilinskas - a modern interior and a Small Hall with a revolving audience platform were created, and the theatre reopened on 2 June 1990. In 2007 the theatre closed again and was reconstructed in 2010-2015 to a design by the Archko company and S. Manomaitis, after which the old building's facade regained its authentic red-brick tone.
At the time of research the theatre box office usually worked Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00-19:00, but it was announced that tickets are also bought online and the schedule changed temporarily. Such arrangements are unstable, so before travelling it is essential to check the official theatre page and repertoire. If you simply want to see the building, it is enough to include Theatre Square in an Old Town walk.
