Csokonai National Theatre
Romantic-style 1865 playhouse with drama, opera and dance companies, reopened after restoration in 2023.
Debrecen's citizens raised the money for a permanent theatre in the 1850s, and the house on Kossuth utca opened in 1865 to designs by Antal Szkalnitzky. Its Romantic exterior mixes round-arched and Moorish-influenced detail, with an arcaded entrance loggia and a richly painted horseshoe auditorium inside. The theatre took the name of the Debrecen-born poet Mihály Csokonai Vitéz in 1916 and was given national theatre status in 2020. A thorough restoration closed the building for almost three years; it reopened with a gala on 17 September 2023.
The company works across several stages. The historic Csokonai Teátrum carries the large-scale repertoire, while the Csokonai Fórum, a converted complex nearby, houses the Latinovits Zoltán and Kóti Árpád studio auditoriums and the Simor Ottó Orfeum. Drama, opera and a dance ensemble share the season, which in 2026/27 runs to eighteen premieres and around six hundred performances, and summer productions move to the open-air stage in the Nagyerdő park.
Highlights
- Painted horseshoe auditorium restored in 2020-2023
- Romantic facade with an arcaded entrance loggia
- Drama, opera and dance companies in one house
- Studio stages at the nearby Csokonai Fórum
