P. O. Hviezdoslav Theater
The P. O. Hviezdoslav Theater is a municipal theater founded by the Capital City of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava, and located in a historic building at 20 Laurinská Street in the Old Town.
The P. O. Hviezdoslav Theater, n. o. (DPOH) is a municipal theater founded by the Capital City of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava. Established as an independent municipal nonprofit organization in July 2022, the theater held its grand opening in January 2023. DPOH is currently an open municipal theater that, in accordance with the city’s cultural policy, fosters dialogue with urban communities on current topics, supports young artists, and creates a space for the development of cultural life for the residents of Bratislava and its metropolitan area. It is committed to the principles of sustainability, accessibility, inclusion, equality, diversity, and democracy.
DPOH is located right in the heart of the Old Town at 20 Laurinská Street in a historic building that is a national cultural monument. Its façade features striking sculptures by the academic sculptor František Draškovič, and the foyer on the first-floor features mosaic stained-glass windows created by the academic painter Janko Alexy.
DPOH offers several attractive venues: performances take place not only on the Main Stage, which seats 468 (with the option of creating seating on the stage itself), but also in a unique industrial space in the basement, which formerly served as a civil defense shelter. In the foyer on the first floor, the theater organizes dramaturgical introductions to productions, discussions, and educational events. In the mirrored rehearsal rooms, visitors can participate in creative workshops.
A Diverse Program
The theater’s repertoire consists of productions for adult audiences, children, and youth, complemented by co-production projects and guest performances by partner theaters from Slovakia and abroad.
DPOH’s offerings also include a diverse side-events —the topics of productions in the repertoire or upcoming works can be further explored within the theater and through engagement with the audience via attractive interdisciplinary formats such as discussions, book clubs, exhibitions, film screenings, workshops, performances, or staged readings. This creates a unique urban theater space with a vibrant dialogue among various communities. In the 2025/2026 season, a curatorial board composed of leading figures in Slovak culture also contributes to the creation of this program.
The theater’s program structure is built on four pillars: openness, interdisciplinarity, expertise, and discussion. Current themes and the core philosophy of the repertoire include social myths, urban phenomena and returns, silenced voices, courage and power, the personal and public body, and generations.
The goal of DPOH’s development concept as an open theater with open dramaturgy is to foster high-quality civic and socially engaged theater that resonates beyond the city and the country.
DPOH creates a safe space for free creation and the development of new staging approaches across a broad genre spectrum, diverse scenic forms, and experiments. It commemorates, preserves, and uncovers historical memory. It encourages visitors to engage in their own creativity and to actively carry the experience into their daily lives.
The theater fosters collaborations with individuals and groups from the independent cultural sector, with Slovak and international artists, cultural institutions (both domestic and abroad), with municipal theaters in Central Europe (through both individuals and institutions), as well as with universities. DPOH actively collaborates with the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, and their partnership is formalized in a Memorandum of Cooperation.
Source: Katarína Bubeníková, Robert Tappert
