Tallinn City Theatre, then the Youth Theatre of the Estonian SSR, began its journey on August 13, 1965 without a building of its own. Performances were given in schools, in free venues of Tallinn, and touring around Estonia. For ten days a month the theatre was able to use the big stage in the newly built Jaan Tombi Palace of Culture on Salme Street, but performances were also given at the Writers’ House, the Composers’ House, the Kadriorg Palace etc. Thus, this theatre became inventive and flexible, learned to play with space, to respect the diversity of ideas, texts and forms.
The troupe’s headquarters was a small dilapidated house on Lai Street in Tallinn Old Town – the Youth Theatre’s only building of its own. After ten years of renovations the Small Stage was opened there. Later, the buildings adjacent to the house at 23 Lai Street were incorporated, and in the new era, with Estonia having regained its independence, the block developed into a theatre complex with several small venues and a summer stage – by that time already operating under the name Tallinn City Theatre. At last, the theatre had a house of its own. A house where diversity and creative freedom were held in high regard, where tradition and modernity were brought together. The audience loved the City Theatre, but the largest of its venues could not even accommodate two hundred spectators. The dream that the theatre had started with in 1965 under the leadership of Voldemar Panso, that had already been at the arms reach at least twice, but still failed, was unfulfilled – a big venue of its own.
By autumn 2025, this dream, which had lasted six decades, finally came true. On October 10, 2025, after a reconstruction supported by the city of Tallinn and the state of Estonia, the Tallinn City Theatre opened its renewed theatre complex with the Great Hall sunk deep into the ground and the brand new Black Hall built next to it, connected by a spacious Atrium spanning several floors. The long-standing gap in the row of houses along Aida Street, left by the March 1944 bombing, was rebuilt, and its bright solution opens up a view of the theatre’s courtyard. In place of the former Open-Air Stage, which once stood in the old foundation pit, a courtyard raised to street level was created for summer performances. The theatre also retained all of its beloved old venues, some of them with new names or locations.
The start of the construction coincided with a generational transition. Elmo Nüganen and Raivo Põldmaa, who had led the theatre for almost thirty years, stepped down in the summer of 2021. The management of the construction project, as well as the reimagining of the theatre, fell on the shoulders of the new artistic director Uku Uusberg and general manager Mihkel Kübar.
Since the new building is twice as big as the old one, it requires a new vision for the City Theatre. Uku Uusberg is building a theatre whose face is its permanent company – a total of 36 actors as of today. The number of resident directors has also increased – Markus H. Ilves and Marta Aliide Jakovski have joined Uku Uusberg and Diana Leesalu – and several members of the acting troupe have taken on the role of director. At the same time, the doors have been opened to many interesting directors from outside the company to expand the boundaries of spoken theatre. A diversity of ideas and forms is in the DNA of the City Theatre. This theatre has never been monolithic, but symbiotic, and as such, it continues to create its own world today.