History

Armenian first state theatre was established in Yerevan in 1921. The very first performance of the theatre was Pepo by Armenian famed writer Gabriel Sundukyan. The first night of the performance took place on January 25, 1922.

During the first years of its activity theatre succeeded in bringing together many celebrated Armenian actors, directors, as well as writers, composers and artists from different parts of the world. Soon the theatre became the main center of Armenian theatrical life thus gaining its non-official status as Mother Theatre. In 1937 the theatre was named after Armenian prominent writer Gabriel Sundukyan.

During all those years the theatre had impressive number of performances, including in its repertoire plays of both Armenian and world-famous playwrights, it had tours in different countries – France, USA, Belarus, Russia, Georgia, Lebanon, Syria.

In 2012 the theatre took part in Globe to Globe festival with the performance King John.

Nowadays National Theatre continues its dynamic activity keeping up with the times.

In the main repertoire are included such performances as Richard III after Shakespeare, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest after Ken Kesey, Streetcar Named Desire after Tennessee Williams, Bernarda Alba’s House by Garcia Lorca, Richard III will not Take Place, or Scenes from the Life of Meyerhold after Matei Visniec, Pepo after Gabriel Sundukyan. Among the performances for children are Aladdin and Frozen Heart.

Theatre pays much attention to educational programs. In 2019 theatre launched special educational program named Classroom+Classics for high school students.

In 2019 a new small stage in Black Box format was built giving new opportunities for contemporary theatrical approaches.

In 2021-2023 the theatre took part in several theatre festival, among them Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania, “Direction East” International Theatre Festival of Bialystok, Poland, Alexandrinsky Festival, Russia.

In 2022 the theatre organized “Theatre Posters” International Festival.

In 2023 the theatre founded the Yerevan International Theatre Festival.