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The Oradea State Theatre is one of the most important patrimonial buildings of Oradea. The project was realized by the well-known architecture firm Fellner and Helmer from Vienne and its construction, which took only 15 months (from the 10th of July 1899 until the 15th of October 1990) was supervised by the architects of Oradea Rimanockzy Kalman, Guttmann Jozsef and Rendes Vilmos.
The exterior combines in a harmonious way the neoclassical style, which prevails on the facade, with neo-renaissance and neo-baroque elements, while the inner ornaments have an accentuated rococo style.
The building has three levels: the main hall, the boxes and the balcony. The construction of the main hall aimed at the realization of perfect acoustics. It also included an orchestra box. These characteristics, which remained unchanged along the years, transform the main hall into an ideal space for staging theatre plays, opera shows and concerts. At present, the hall has a total capacity of 670 seats.
Until the Unification of Transylvania with Romania, it housed the performances of the permanent Hungarian theatrical company. The 9th and the 10th of October 1927 mark the beginning of the first Romanian theatrical season on the stage of Oradea, with the performances of the National Theatre of Cluj, directed by Victor Eftimiu, poet and playwright.
The first permanent Romanian company in Oradea was founded in 1928 within the Western Theatre; this professional company was preceded by many dilettante groups made by amateur actors (teachers, students, lawyers, clerks).
The repertoire of the Romanian company consisted mainly of plays belonging to the national drama production which was in full progress at that time (Vasile Alecsandri, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Matei Millo, Iosif Vulcan, I.L. Caragiale), but also of a great number of plays from the world dramaturgy: W. Shakespeare, Moliere, Schiller, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Ibsen, G.B. Shaw, Somerset Maugham; there were also adaptations of melodramas, vaudevilles, musicals, musical comedies (Scribe, Labiche, Herve, Mayo).
After the Vienna Dictat, of the 30th of August 1040, when Northern Transylvania was surrendered to Horthyst Hungary, no Romanian play was staged at Oradea. It was only after the liberation, in 1944, that a workers' group founded the association “Friends of Theatre”, with the purpose of recreating the Romanian theatre in Oradea. The Arts Ministry supported the association's efforts and on the 19th of December 1945, the hired artists and the director Stefan Iordanescu arrived in Oradea. The inauguration of the new season took place on the 4th of January 1946, with the famous melodrama “Beggars in Dark Clothes” by D'Ennery and Cormon.

After 1946, when the theatre becomes state property, the Romanian company was inactive, lacking the necessary funds. It was reestablished in 1955, and since that year it has functioned without interruption.
Now the State Theatre of Oradea has two departments: the Romanian one and the Hungarian one; In each theatrical season, that lasts from 25th August till July 1st, there are 10-12 premieres. The repertoire of the Romanian department mainly consists of plays belonging to the great drama tradition in Europe (Euripide, Sofocle, Maeterlinck, Shakespeare, Moliere, Goldoni, Cehov, Labiche etc.) as well as debuts or absolute premiers in the country.
The theatrical company of Oradea has been permanently looking for new plays, as the critics and reviewers always pointed out, as well as for finding original ways of stage mending, of the actor’s work on the text and his part, for promoting innovation within the fragile frame of the theatrical show. The theatre has also got a studio hall with 40-50 seats meant for performing short plays, poetry, readings, and experimental shows.
Since 1976, the theatre of Oradea has been organizing, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and city Town hall, the Festival of short play. It is a festival of unconventional spaces of acting, using as stages different areas of the town.
The theatrical company performed many tours in Romania and abroad: Hungary, Greece, Turkey, South Korea, Italy, Croatia, Slovakia.