Arlekin Puppet Theatre named after Henryk Ryl

Arlekin Puppet Theatre named after Henryk Ryl has operated since 1948 and is one of the oldest puppet stages in Poland. It is located in an Art Nouveau building at the corner of 1 Maja avenue and Wólczańska Street, in the Polesie district. It performs for children, but also maintains a repertoire for adults, and has around three hundred premieres and over thirty-five thousand performances to its credit.

The origin of Arlekin

The theatre was founded by Henryk Ryl, a director, puppeteer and educator, who obtained permission from the Ministry of Culture and Art on 13 July 1948. The first performance, Two Michals and the whole world, based on his own text, was shown at the end of December 1948 at Piotrkowska Street 150. Ryl led the stage for twenty-six years, established the Polish section of the international puppeteers' organisation UNIMA and the first Polish magazine devoted to puppet art. The theatre officially received the name of its patron in 2014. After Ryl, the company was led successively by Regina Elkan, Stanisław Ochmański and Waldemar Wolański, and since 2018 the director has been Wojciech Brawer.

Building from 1902

The seat was designed by Gustaw Landau-Gutenteger, one of the most important Łódź architects of the turn of the centuries, and was built in 1902 as a dance and assembly house for the Offenbach family, with halls for concerts and weddings. Arlekin has occupied this building since 1955, and since 1962 has been its sole owner. The building was entered in the register of historic monuments on 8 December 1994 under number A-356 and is considered a stylistically pure example of Art Nouveau, similar to parts of the development around Piotrkowska Street.

Stages after renovation

Between 2012 and 2014 the theatre underwent major modernisation, and performances were then staged in a building belonging to the White Factory complex at Piotrkowska 282a, which is the home of the Central Museum of Textiles. After work was completed in December 2014, Arlekin has a large stage seating 214, a chamber stage for around eighty people with amphitheatre seating, a rehearsal room serving as a small stage, and a workshop-gallery room for groups of up to sixty people. The building also houses workshops where puppets and scenery are made.

Repertoire and puppet technique

The company works in various animation techniques, from hand puppets to puppets operated by actors visible on stage. Arlekin is among the few theatres using long-string marionettes, with which actors animate puppets from special platforms suspended several metres above the stage. In addition to adaptations of fairy tales and children's literature, the theatre runs a cycle for viewers from sixteen years old, designed to show that puppets are not solely a matter for the very young. The stage has organised the International Festival of Solo Puppeteers since 1999 and the street TrotuArt festival, and since 2015 the AnimArt animation art festival. The Creative Viewer Workshop runs sessions for schools, families and teachers, as do the education departments of the Łódź Philharmonic.

Practical information

• Address: 1 Maja Avenue 2, Łódź, Polesie; entrance for spectators from Wólczańska Street 5.
• Getting there: public transport in the area of 1 Maja Avenue and Wólczańska Street, a dozen or so minutes on foot from the city centre and Manufaktura.
• What to expect: puppet shows for children in various age groups, separate productions for adults, workshops and educational classes.
• Tickets and repertoire: tickets are sold by the theatre and ticketing services; check the theatre website for box office and secretariat opening hours before your visit.
• Three halls of different sizes mean that choosing your seat should take into account which stage the performance is on.