Pyongyang Theatres

Mansudae People's Theatre | Pyongyang Grand Theatre | Moranbong Theater | Mansudae Art Theatre | Yanggakdo International Cinema House | East Pyongyang Grand Theatre | 25th April Palace of Culture | Pyongyang People's Palace of Culture | Central Youth Hall

In Pyongyang there are about 6 theatres, number of cultural houses and cinemas. All these facilites are used for cultural education of people.

Mansudae People's Theatre

The theatre was opened in 2012, it was part of the second phase of the renovation of the Mansudae area. 

Pyongyang Grand Theatre

It was opened in Juche 49 (1960) and renovated in Juche 98 (2009). It boasts 1200 seats and modern sound equipment.

Moranbong Theater

It was opened in Juche 35 (1946) and renovated in Juche 95 (2006). This theatre is an historic place where important national meetings took place.

Mansudae Art Theatre

Located near the Grand People's Study House It was completed in Juche 65 (1976). It has a main and a small theatres. A vast mural depicting revolutionary opera "sea of blood" dominates the facede of the theatre. The fountains in front of the Mansudae Art Theatre is a popular meeting place and a favorite backdrop for photos. The main sculptures in the fountains are performig a dance called "Snow Falls".

In front of the theatre there is Fountain Park.

Yanggakdo International Cinema House

The Pyongyang International Cinema is a six-screen complex on Yanggak Island, near the Yanggakdo Hotel. It is home for The Pyongyang International Film Festival held here every September in even-numbered years.

The Pyongyang International Film Festival is a biennial cultural exhibition and an unusually cosmopolitan event. The event originated in 1987 as the Pyongyang Film Festival of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries. As the name precisely delineated, the festival was a cultural exchange between countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. The maiden event, held from September 1 through September 10, showed short films, features, and documentaries that were judged for competitive awards.

The film festival returned in 1990 and would be regularly held every other year. In 2000, officials widened the acceptable breadth of film watching, by screening Japanese films for the first time. The ninth festival, held in 2004, moderated cultural restrictions further with the screening of a dubbed and censored version of the British comedy Bend It Like Beckham and U.S.-produced South African drama Cry, The Beloved Country. Bend it like Beckham won the music prize and later it became the first Western-made film shown on television in North Korea.

In 2006, the Swedish horror comedy Frostbiten was shown at the festival, being the first foreign horror film to ever be shown in North Korea. The Schoolgirl's Diary, which premiered at the 2006 festival, in 2007 became the first North Korean film in several decades to be picked up for international distribution, when it was purchased by French company Pretty Pictures. It was released in France in late 2007.

In recent years, the film festival has included films from Western countries with which Pyongyang has diplomatic relations. Many of the films are censored and often have themes emphasising family values, loyalty and the temptations of money. In 2008, 110 films were shown from a total of 46 countries.

East Pyongyang Grand Theatre

The East Pyongyang Grand Theatre was built in 1989 and is normally a venue for performances that celebrate North Korea's national achievements, and "revolutionary operas that depict North Korea's struggles in song and dance." The overall size is more than 62,000 square meters. A collonated great hall (lobby) includes a mural of Ullim Falls.

It was the site of the 2008 concert by the New York Philharmonic. It was the first time an American cultural organization had appeared in North Korea, and the largest contingent of United States citizens to appear since the Korean War. The trip has been suffused with political importance since North Korea’s invitation came to light last year. It was seen by some as an opening for warmer relations with the United States, which North Korea has long reviled.

The concert evoked other orchestra missions to communist states, like the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s visit to the Soviet Union in 1956, followed soon after by a Philharmonic visit, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s trip to China in 1973

25th April Palace of Culture

It was opened in Juche 64 (1975) as a main place for cultural education of soldiers and people. It has two teatres for 6000 and 1100 seats, anmd a cinema for 600 seats.

In October 2007 President of South Korea Roh Moo Hyun traveled by car to Pyongyang from Seoul, the first time that a senior South Korean official had crossed into the North by land since the Korean War.

Roh was greeted by head of state Kim Young Nam at the People’s Culture Palace and they paraded in an open car all the way to the April 25th Culture Center, where Kim Jong Il personally welcomed Roh amid enthusiastic cheers from several hundred thousand people. Roh is the first outsider to be formally welcomed in front of the April 25 Culture Center, which commemorates Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese resistance unit.

Pyongyang People's Palace of Culture

It was opened in Juche 63 (1974). It is a venue of cultural education, national and international conferences and other social events.

Central Youth Hall

It was completed in Juche 78 (1989). It has theatres, multifunctional lobby for meetings, dancing and other events. The Hall serves as a social education center for the youth.