Jan Kochanowski Theatre

The Jan Kochanowski Theatre has operated in its current form and location since 1975. Its predecessor as a professional Polish theatre in Opole was founded in 1945, however, known then as the Juliusz Słowacki Municipal Theatre. The Opole theatre building houses four scenes. Multiple premieres take place there every year, in addition to plays by outside troupes. Every year since 1975, the Opole theatre has been organising one of the largest theatre festivals in Poland – the “Polish Classics” Opole Theatre Confrontations. The greatest classic Polish plays are staged during the event by artists vying for the Grand Prix and a range of other awards. Since 2015, the Confrontations have served as the finale of the year-long “Classics Alive” Polish Literature Staging Contest, a country-wide contest whose purpose is to recognise the greatest stagings of Polish plays and foster interest in older literature among playwrights.
Also alive is the memory of Jerzy Grotowski, a great reformer of Polish theatre who took over management of the 13 Rows’ Theatre in the late 1950s, later renamed to the 13 Rows’ Laboratory Theatre. Grotowski worked in Opole until 1965.