Teatr Groteska, Kraków

Teatr Groteska is a Kraków theatre on Skarbowa Street, founded in 1945 as a children’s stage for puppets, masks and actors. It now also serves adult audiences and is known for visual theatre and dance. The theatre created the Great Dragon Parade, Materia Prima festival and Code of Masters talks.

Teatr Groteska is the theatre on Skarbowa Street, a Kraków house of puppets, visual theatre and dance. Notice the entrance and imagine the first audience arriving here on the ninth of June 1945: the opening production was Władysław Jarema’s “Cyrk Tarabumba.” He and Zofia Jarema created Groteska as a children’s theatre, originally giving it a name that joined puppets, masks and actors.

That origin still matters, but this is not a children-only stage. Groteska now also presents work for adult audiences, and its earlier adult repertoire included major stagings of Sławomir Mrożek’s “The Martyrdom of Piotr Ohey,” Tadeusz Różewicz’s “The Card Index,” and Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi.” Under Zofia Jarema, political metaphor and poetry became central to its character.

The theatre’s imagination spills out into the city each June through the Great Dragon Parade, a family event beneath Wawel where enormous colourful dragons take over for two days. Groteska also launched the biennial Materia Prima festival for theatre of form and dance, plus the Code of Masters conversations linking Kraków students and residents with leading cultural and intellectual figures. Since September 2023, its director has been Dr Karol Suszczyński.