Theatre on the Balustrade

Divadlo Na zabradli (Theatre on the Balustrade) in the Prague Old Town near Charles Bridge is the most important Czech stage for absurdist and experimental theatre. Founded in 1958, the house made its name in the 1960s with productions of Beckett, Ionesco and Mrozek. The later dissident and president Vaclav Havel started here as a stagehand and premiered his play The Garden Party in 1963, the work that established him as a playwright. Director Jan Grossman shaped the stage in the same years. Today the theatre at Anenske namesti continues a contemporary repertoire in its historic hall, often with English surtitles.