Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre
Black brick playhouse with an opening roof, built on the site of a 17th-century fencing school.
The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre opened in September 2014 on the site of a wooden Fencing School that stood here from about 1610 and hosted travelling English players. Designed by the Italian architect Renato Rizzi, the building is a sheer block of dark brick set among the tenements of the old town, its outer walls broken only by deep recesses and gates. Inside, timber galleries and a movable stage allow the auditorium to be arranged as an Elizabethan courtyard, an Italian proscenium house or a flat studio.
Its best-known feature is a roof that opens in about three minutes, letting daylight fall on the stage as it would have in an open-air playhouse. The theatre presents its own productions, hosts visiting companies, concerts and readings, and runs education programmes. Each summer it stages the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival, with the Golden Yorick award for the best Polish staging of Shakespeare and the SzekspirOFF competition for independent work.
Highlights
- Roof that opens to the sky in about three minutes
- Auditorium convertible between Elizabethan, Italian and studio layouts
- Built on the site of the 17th-century Fencing School playhouse
- Host of the annual Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival
