Right at the Freedom Square of Tallinn’s center there lays the Russian Theatre, regarded as one of Scandinavia’s most beautiful theatres, and the true keeper of Russian Theatre in Estonia. Vene teater turned 60 in 2008.
The Estonian Russian Theatre is the country’s only professional Russian theatre. The history of every theatre is formed by its plays. Russian theatre ignited on December 15th, 1948, when V. Suponev’s „Lendurite pere“ premiered. The actors of the new theatre were formed by graduates of GITIS (National Theatre Institution), students of professor V. Belokurov. In the years 1948 – 2005 the theatre went by the name of National Russian Drama Theatre, from 2005 simply Russian Theatre.
During its six decade existence, the theatre has produced almost 500 plays. Shows have been performed in several former Soviet cities. Lately, the theatre has guest-performed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius, Novgorod, and taken part in many festivals. On the stages of the Russian theatre, many famous directors have worked: Andrei Tarkovski, Roman Viktjuk, Juri Jerjomin, Jüri Sillart, Kalju Komissarov, Voldemar Panso. Also, famous actors like Oleg Striženov, Anatoli Solonitsõn, Ada Rogovtseva, and others have performed there.
In 2006, the theatre team was joined by young graduates from the Moscow Academic Theatre School, students of professors S. Zemtsov and I. Zolotovitski. The year 2006 was truly a year of renewal at the theatre: after two years of wandering on foreign stages the theatre was given back their renovated building and the first shows in both the smaller and larger halls made new attendance records.
Welcome to the world of the Estonian Russian Theatre!