The first theater on the site of the current drama theater was opened in mid-1859 by merchant Franz Osipovich Shechtel, who was the uncle of the famous architect Fyodor Osipovich Shechtel. At that time, the theater and garden were located outside of Saratov and were called suburban. The wooden building of the theater was summer-only, and it burned down and was rebuilt multiple times. After Shechtel's death in 1867, the theater was purchased by the Servye couple, but after the fire in 1875, they were forced to sell it.

In 1891, the theater became accessible to everyone, and from 1897, it was considered a people's theater. In 1901, the building completely burned down, and by 1906, a new stone building was constructed according to the project of Saratov architect G. G. Plotnikov. The main repertoire consisted of dramas, and the theater gradually regained the popularity of the Servye era. In 1916, the theater was named after A. N. Ostrovsky, and two years later, with the arrival of Soviet power, it was renamed in honor of Karl Marx.

The classic repertoire was supplemented with new performances about revolutionary events, and the theater's troupe significantly strengthened with the arrival of talented actors and directors. In the summer of 1938, the theater toured in Moscow. By the 1960s, the old building had deteriorated and was demolished. In its place, a new theater in a modern style made of concrete and glass was built in 1968, designed by architects V. I. Surodin, V. I. Skorobogatov, and L. I. Yachin. The opening was marked by the performance of "Russian People" by K. M. Simonov.

In 1977, the theater was awarded the title of academic. In the following years, it successfully toured cities across the USSR. In the post-Soviet period, there was a third renaming: in 2003, the Saratov academic drama was named after the celebrated actor and director I. A. Slonov.