Comedy Theatre of Budapest
Budapest's largest repertory theatre, an 1896 Fellner and Helmer house on the Grand Boulevard.
The Comedy Theatre, known in Hungarian as the Vígszínház, opened in May 1896 on what is now Szent István Boulevard. The Viennese partnership of Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer designed the free-standing neo-Baroque building, which seats roughly 1,100 and was one of the largest theatres in the city. It was founded as a private company to stage contemporary drama and comedy rather than the classical repertoire then dominant at the National Theatre.
The house gave early Hungarian performances of Ibsen, Chekhov, Shaw and Molnár, and Ferenc Molnár's plays in particular were closely associated with the company. A bomb badly damaged the building in January 1945; it was rebuilt and used under the name Theatre of the Hungarian People's Army before recovering its original title, and a further restoration in the 1990s returned much of the auditorium decoration. The company also plays at the Pesti Theatre on Váci Street, and some productions carry English surtitles.
Highlights
- Free-standing neo-Baroque theatre by Fellner and Helmer
- Auditorium of about 1,100 seats on the Grand Boulevard
- Long association with the plays of Ferenc Molnár
- Selected productions performed with English surtitles
