Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre

What makes it special

From the street the theatre is a plain dark box, clad in 1.2 million anthracite bricks. The roof opens: its two 46-tonne halves lift apart in about three minutes, so plays can run in daylight, in the Renaissance tradition.

Inside, the dark brick gives way to wood. In the seventeenth century this site held a fencing school built like London's Fortune Theatre, and the main hall recreates that Elizabethan playhouse.

The stage itself is the other thing to look at, because it moves. The hall can be reset as a classic Italian stage facing the seats, as an arena, or as an Elizabethan thrust stage pushed out into the audience.

In the Elizabethan layout the audience on the ground floor stands around the stage, while the wooden galleries rise above them.

Visiting

Ticketed entry only: to see the auditorium you need a performance ticket or a place on a guided tour.

The guest cloakroom is on level minus one, with the toilets opposite it, and it is free and supervised. Using it is optional, but anything in glass or a hard container has to stay there, because it may not be carried into the auditorium.

On the tour you walk into the main hall and onto the Elizabethan stage. You are also shown some of the theatre's backstage stage technology.

Guided or on your own

Three kinds of tour run. The standard tour is the way in if you have no show ticket, and an English-language version is offered.

A themed walk is led by a guide playing Shakespeare, who speaks Polish. A night tour takes the building after dark, with no classic guide. Tickets for the tours are sold on the theatre's own website.

Tips

Photographing or filming a performance is banned, so put your phone away once the play starts.

Wheelchair users come in by the wheelchair entrance to the left of the main doors, and lifts reach every floor. The wooden galleries cannot be reached by wheelchair, so book a seat at ground level.