National Theatre Belgrado (RS) visit 23 September 2015

The National Theatre in Belgrade, was opened in 1869, in the Serbian capital Belgrade,  After WW II, the theatre was reconstructed in 1964/65, but the stage and facade remained unchanged. Final reconstruction was made 1986-1989.

There are performances of Drama, Ballet and Opera.

Thanks to S.Cen (the Serbian OISTAT center) I was well received by mr. Milan Markovic, the technical director.

Compared to the footprint of the building, the hall is relatively small, with only about 500 seats.

 This also reflects in the size of the foyer, that where busts of famous Serbian artists can be seen:

At the time of visit, the stage was empty, preparing for a visiting performance of the BITEF festival.

This way you can see clearly the strange proportions of the stage, with a stage opening of 9 m (7 m high), the total stage is 32 m deep.

 Behind and connected to the stage, is a big warehouse where the sets of the repertoire are waiting.
With a loading dock all the way at the back, connected to the back street.

The understage and upperstage machinery were constructed by Svetlost Teater in the 80s.
They are still in perfect working order, also thanks to good maintenance.
30 years is not that old, but in terms of theatre technology, there still an antique feel on it.

As said, the theatre houses the national drama company, the opera and the ballet.
Apart from the big stage, they also have a smaller, 200 seat black box theatre under the same roof.
To meet it looked like a practical venue to work in.

So it's a big house, with a lot of people working there.
Inside are also 2 pubs.
We tried them out both..