The National Theatre is the most distinguished venue for plays in Hungary. Although there has been a Hungarian theatre in Budapest for the last 150 years, it has only had a permanent and suitable home for theatregoers since 15th March 2002.

The Great Hall (Nagyszínház) seats 619 people; the auditorium is tiered.

The Studio Theatre (Stúdiószínház), seating 150 people, was built under the ground-floor entrance-hall and the auditorium. Plays in English are regularly performed in the Studio Theatre. 

The establishment of a permanent National Theatre has a long history. Funded by donations, the building of the Pest Hungarian Theatre (Pesti Magyar Színház) was opened in Pest on 22nd August 1837. The 1840 Parliament gave the establishment its name, the National Theatre. Its temporary building, built in 1837, became out of date and therefore had to be pulled down and the National Theatre moved into the empty building of the People's Theatre (Népszínház) on Lujza Blaha Square in 1908. After hosting the theatre for half a century, the graceful, old building was blown up in March 1965 in order to build the underground railway. The theatre temporarily moved into Nagymező Street, and then into the building of the Hungarian Theatre (Magyar Színház) on Sándor Hevesi Square.