Theatre on the Balustrade, Theatre building in Old Town, Prague, Czech Republic
Theatre on the Balustrade is a three-storey classical building with a pale green facade and an orange tiled roof, standing on Anenské náměstí in Prague's Old Town. Its ground floor carries the signs "Cafe Bar Divadlo Na zabradli Theatre" and "Divadlo Na Zabradli"; the roof has three dormer windows, and the top two floors each have five windows. A small hall called Eliadova knihovna, converted from a mime rehearsal room on the second floor, seats productions needing little scenery.
Founded in 1958 by Helena Philippová, Ivan Vyskočil, Jiří Suchý and Vladimír Vodička, the theatre opened on 9 December 1958 with the musical collage If a Thousand Clarinets. In the early 1960s Jan Grossman, set designer Libor Fára and Václav Havel made it a centre of Czech absurd theatre; both were forced out in 1968. From 1976 Evald Schorm staged productions here, and Jan Grossman returned in 1989.
The theatre's name comes from the lane Na zábradlí, named after the vanished church of St John the Baptist Na zábradlí; the street took this name only in the 1920s. From 3 March 1959 Ladislav Fialka's mime group performed alongside the drama company until his death in 1991. Since 2013 the venue has run under Petr Štědroň, Dora Štědroňová and Jan Mikulášek.
The theatre stands at Anenské náměstí 5 in Prague's Old Town, a short walk from the Vltava embankment and the Národní třída tram stops. The building is wheelchair accessible. The main entrance sits at the corner, marked by a red sign reading "Divadlo Na zábradlí" and a blue parking sign nearby.
In the 1970s and 1980s the theatre gave work to Czech New Wave film directors barred from filmmaking after 1968; Evald Schorm staged Hamlet, The Karamazov Brothers and Marathon here from 1976, drawing actors such as Jiří Bartoška and Karel Heřmánek.
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