Theatres

Kharkovsky Academic Russian Drama Theater

Pushkin National Academic Russian Drama Theater in Kharkov was founded in 1933 in order to popularize the Russian realistic art. 

The theater was headed by the national artist of the former USSR Nikolay Vasilievich Petrov.

He came to Kharkov with his own troupe. Though he was an art director, the theater was also headed by the national actor of the former USSR Kramov and by the national actor of Ukraine Sinelnikov.

In 1933 Kharkov used to be a capital, and the theater had its own publishing house, where some books, collected stories, articles and even a weekly newspaper “Russian Drama’s Theater” were printed.

The aim of the director Nikolay Petrov was to create a unique theater, not just a usual one. The first performances enjoyed a great popularity. For example “Revizor”, “Gore ot Uma”, “Chapaev”. After the change of the Ukrainian capital the publishing house was closed, all the benefits of the capital theater were canceled. But still the theater gave unforgettable performances, such as Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, “Voskresenye” (Sunday).    

For the group of National Academic Russian Theater in Kharkov it was always interesting to explore the human’s nature and not to replace it with stunts or other entertaining methods. The artists of this theater are famous for their psychological, intellectual manner of acting, and high stage culture.

Today the group consists of actors of different generations. Among them there are honored artists, for example Tabarovsky, Lysenko, Vasiliev, Moskalenko, Timoshenko, Titova and many others.    

During the years of the theater activity it gave successful performances on a tour in many cities: Moscow, Saint-Petersburg (former Leningrad), Vilnius, Riga, Yerevan, Baku, Kishinev, Minsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and many other cities.

Address: Kharkov, 61057, Chernyshevskogo str., 11

Tel: (0572) 43-01-46, 47-10-44

Opera and Ballet Theater

The National Ukrainian Opera was organized in 1925.

It was based on a group of representatives of music school in Kharkov with its own settled performing traditions and on some artists invited from other regions of Ukraine.

Goleyzovsky, Tsaplin, Messerer, Zacharov – famous choreographers had a great influence on the development of the ballet troupe. Among the invited conductors and directors you can find such names as Lapitsky, Maslovskaya, Smolich and some other.
Beginning from 1991 the theater has been working in a new building, which architectural and technical abilities helped the theater to reveal the performing talents of the young. The international cooperation has strengthened a great deal recently. The theater starts enjoying a great popularity on an international level.
Address: Sumskaya str., 25

Те l: (0572) 47-72-16,47-72-16

Theater of Musical Comedy

This is the first theater of musical comedy in Ukraine. It was opened in 1929 with a performance called “Orpheus in hell”.

Due to the cooperation with the leading Ukrainian literary men and composers about 40 musical comedies were staged, a lot of them became the classics of native musical comedy, for example Ryadov’s “Svadba v Malinovke”. In the 30es the Kharkov stage used to be the real creative laboratory of the modern musical comedy. The new repertoire didn’t mean the refusal of west-european repertoire.

There are many outstanding Ukrainian culture workers connected with this theater, such as Vishi, Sobol, Avakh, Ryabov and many others.

There were also invited some guests from Moscow musical comedy – Tatiana Shmyga, Gerard Vasiliev and some other. The playbill of the theater was replenished by such performances as “Letuchaya Mysh” (“Bat”), “Tsygansky baron” (“Gipsy baron”) due to the cooperation with a famous director Vladimir Kandelaki.

Today there are 14 performances for adults and 6 for children, among them there are the best patterns of classic musical comedy, musicals and modern musical comedies.

Address: Karla Marksa str., 32

Tel: (0572) 12-29-30, 12-40-50

The National Puppet show in Kharkov

In the December of 2000 the theater celebrated its 45 th birthday.

Kharkov Puppet show enjoys a great popularity, it is considered to be one of the leading theaters in Ukraine. Its repertoire consists of more than 20 plays for children of different age and of the biggest repertoire for adults in Ukraine.

Address: Ploshad Konstitutsy, 24

Tel: (0572) 12-67-31, 12-73-95