The following article reviews three books, published in 2021, discussing the history of three Hungarian theatre companies until 2020. Lívia Ölbei’s Benned a létra (The Ladder Within) provides an introduction to the Weöres Sándor Theater, established in 2007 in Szombathely, Ildikó Sirató’s (ed.) „…merő álom” (Merely a Dream) shares recollections and personal stories from the forty years of the Soltis Lajos Theater in Celldömölk and its immediate predecessor, the Sitkei Színkör, while András Timár’s (ed.) Mások akartunk lenni (We Wanted to be Different) is a publication of the historical research material of project TEÁTRUM50, which covers the fifty-year history of the Szentendrei Teátrum. The aim of the review is to discuss how each book approaches the past, how it processes the available documents and memories, and what vision it creates for the reader about each institution.