The theatre is placed at a former space of Adria cinema located at the underground floor levels of house 36-II at the corner of Jungmann Street and National Avenue. (The cinema was named Moskva in the 1950‘s.)

The Adria Palace was established in 1922 to 1925 after Josef Zasche project. The author of the exterior is Pavel Janák. In December 1958 it was approved that Laterna Magica would reside here. Thus the space was adopted to the needs of Laterna Magica in the first half of 1959 using plans carried out by František Zubra, Josef Hrubý and Zdeněk Pokorný. During this reconstruction some original stucco decorations were removed. Some similar ones can be stil seen today above the roundel in front of the theatre entrance. Since 1965 we would find Theatre Behind the Gate operating here under Otomar Krejča’s directions.  This theatre was closed by the political powers in 1972. After the year 1989 the theatre was able to reopen for a short time but in 1994 it ended it operation. During the time between 1996 and 1997 the whole building undergone a complex reconstruction carried out according to a project by Jiří Jiroudek, Marie Švobová and Daniel Pokorný. Consequently, Theatre without a Balustrade directed by Karel Heřmánek moved to this newly reconstructed building from its original place in Vysočany Gong. The new ensemble’s name gave a new title to this newly opened stage.

The auditorium has a capacity of 320 seats. There are fifteen straight rows of a very fast elevation in the parterre. The wall behind the last row opens with two wide windows of technical cabins. On the both sides of this back wall we can find separate sections of a side slip with three step-like rows of seats. Next to them there are fenderless, wheel chair accessible, side boxes. The slip’s wings in between the boxes and the stage are spared for the light equipment. The slip, the boxes and the technical wings are covered with a smooth sill made of dark brown tinted wood placed above the whole length running brass strip. Similar wooden veneer is used for the side parterre walls. The stage portal looks are suppressed, the stage’s flat floor penetrates into the auditorium as a front stage of an arched ground floor plan, flanked with light slim panels in the whole space height.

The entrance and the common room’s areas just as well as the auditorium excel with severe noble elegance.

Employed sources and literature:

- Baťková,  Růžena: Umělecké památky Prahy – Nové Město, Vyšehrad, Vinohrady; Praha 1998, s. 201-202 (stať Rostislava Šváchy).

- Hilmera, Jiří: Stavební historie pražských kinosálů; in: Iluminace 10/1998, č. 2, s. 120-122.

Tags: Interwar period, Contemporary era, Art deco, terraced house, theatre hall

Author: Jiří Hilmera

Translator: Hana Atcheson