City Theater Grein, Theater museum in Old Town Hall Grein, Austria

Stadttheater Grein occupies the former grain granary (Troadkast'n) of the town hall built in 1562/63, converted in 1791 into a Rococo theatre with 167 seats. The hall retains original Sperrsitze, lockable seats in the front rows, and a side niche behind a curtain where audience members could step aside while still following the stage. The oldest surviving playbill, from 1793, lists "Der Trauerschmaus" or "Der Bäckermeister Kasperl".

The theatre opened in 1791 in a grain store of Grein's town hall, built in 1562/63, after bookbinder Xaver Dörr proposed performances to fill the poor fund in November 1790. Citizens and the magistrate fitted out a Rococo hall holding 165 people, using wood from the town forests and furniture from the Franciscan monastery dissolved in 1784. It is described as Austria's oldest town theatre still regularly played.

The space continues to host performances today while displaying objects from regional theater history. Visitors experience how the rooms serve both as a working theater and a place where past traditions remain present.

The theatre sits in the Old Town Hall on Grein's main square, entered through the building that also once held the town jail. The auditorium holds 167 seats, including the original locked Sperrsitze in the front rows. The rooms are open to the public from May to October, when theatre exhibitions are mounted there; outside that season, visits depend on the performance calendar of the Greiner Dilettantengesellschaft.

The theater had a designated area where prisoners could watch performances and receive refreshments from the regular audience. This practice reveals how culture was woven into community life, even for those in custody.