National Theatre Mannheim

The present National Theatre Mannheim (German: Nationaltheater Mannheim), which dates from 1957, is a theatre and opera company in Mannheim, Germany, with a variety of performance spaces. It is notable for being the oldest local theatre in Germany, having celebrated its 225th anniversary on 7 October 2004.

The idea of first building the original National Theatre developed after the suggestion of Elector Palatine Carl Theodor. The first theatre opened in 1779. In the past three hundred years, an important part of the history of German theatre and music history was written both in the original theatre and in Mannheim where new artistic styles were developed and refined in theatre, music and dance. Thus it reflects the tradition of many of the major names of the German arts such as Friedrich Schiller and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

In terms of the history of the company, Friedrich Schiller's first major drama, The Robbers (Die Räuber) was given its inaugural performance in 1782 in presence of the playwright at the National Theatre. The response was overwhelming: "the theatre resembled a lunatic asylum, rolling eyes, clenched fists, ramming feet, hoarse proclamations in the auditorium! Strange humans fell onto each other locked together…."

The venues of the present-day theatre consist of:

Opera House and Schauspielhaus are two theatres under one roof. They share common foyers and other facilities.

The Schillertage, the biannual festival of Schiller's plays that has existed since 1979, selects a group of productions for the Mannheim festival presented both on the theatre's mainstage (plus an experimental series of plays elsewhere). In the past, the main stage series has featured multiple productions of Schiller's early play, The Robbers (in addition to a production of Verdi's opera based on that play, I masnadieri), as well as Intrigue and Love, and his later plays William Tell (1804) (the basis for Rossini's opera of the same name in 1829) and The Maid of Orleans (Die Jungfrau von Orléans), some of which became part of Tchaikovsky's opera.

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