Karinthy Theatre, Theatre in Budapest District XI, Hungary
Karinthy Theatre is a theatre in Budapest's District XI, on the Buda side of the city in the Kelenföld neighbourhood. It has a main hall and smaller performance spaces that allow productions of different scales.
The company was founded in 1982 as the Hököm Színpad, a small theatre cooperative named after a volume by Frigyes Karinthy, and gave its first performances in January 1983 at the Corvin Cinema and the Kaffka Margit Gimnázium. After years of touring and a four-season stay at the Gutenberg Művelődési Otthon, it took the name Karinthy Színház in 1988 and moved into the former Haladás mozi, a cinema in a 1932 apartment building on Bartók Béla út. Its first premiere there was Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men on 12 December 1988.
The theatre takes its name from Frigyes Karinthy, a Hungarian writer known for his sharp wit and literary experiments. The programming often reflects this spirit, mixing comedy with more serious dramatic works.
The theatre sits in a residential part of District XI and is reachable by public transport from central Budapest. Booking ahead is a good idea, as the main hall tends to fill up for popular evenings.
Frigyes Karinthy, the writer this theatre is named after, wrote a book describing his own brain surgery in 1936 while he was fully conscious during the procedure. That detail gives the theatre's name a story that goes well beyond the stage.
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