3 Best Performing Arts Venues in Hungary

Every summer, Matild Café hosts a variety of spectacular cabaret evenings. Guests enjoy a superb three-course meal with wine while being entertained by cabaret performances, featuring a heady mix of music, dance, and even acrobatics. Each themed show offers something different—and something unlike anything else in the Inner Town—and lasts for around two to three hours. Check the website for upcoming shows and to book your tickets in advance. Private bookings are possible year-round.

The wildly shaped oval building of the Miklós Radnóti Cultural Center---RaM Colosseum, opened in 2011---is headquarters of ExperiDance Productions, a multimedia performing arts troupe that puts on a range of musical and dance performances. RAM also hosts international and local theater, music, and dance productions. It’s pricey and flashy but has got some eye-catching original bills on the repertoire, like the musicals Nikola Tesla: Infinite Energy and The Ballad of the Pearl-Haired Girl. Almost all performances are in Hungarian but it is still worth a stroll up through the lesser-frequented parts of Budapest's District 13 to a performance at this offbeat theater space.

A former electrical transformer station in Pest, the Trafó building today showcases contemporary and alternative dance, theater, and music performances by Hungarian and international companies. English subtitles are often available, but it's best to check ahead.