Teatro Arlequín

Arlequín Teatro opened on May 3, 1982, founded by architect, actor and director José Luis Ardissone, who wanted a permanent home for his theater troupe after struggling to gain access to the Municipal Theater during the Stroessner dictatorship. Ardissone found an abandoned, debris-filled former discotheque, convinced its owners to lease it for 100,000 guaraníes, and converted it into a theater using his own savings, a bank loan and help from friends. The opening featured a concert by the Ensamble Asunceno de Música Antigua followed by the first play, "En esta Navidad te venimos a buscar."

During the dictatorship, the Arlequín operated as a space of cultural resistance: productions such as "La casa de Bernarda Alba" and "Las troyanas" carried subversive readings for the era, and a staging of "Hamlet" drew threatening phone calls to the cast before police eventually settled for demanding free tickets. In 1992 the theater moved to its current location on Antequera street after its original Villa Morra site was needed for a shopping center expansion.

Over more than 40 years, the Arlequín has staged more than 350 productions spanning classic, contemporary, children's and experimental theater, and has hosted international artists such as Argentine dancer Julio Bocca and actor Alfredo Alcón. It also operates as an actor-training school, and is run today by Ardissone alongside his children Pablo and Alejandra, remaining one of the most emblematic venues of the Paraguayan theater scene.