Theatre History Overview - Part 23A - Scandinavian Theatre

Scandinavia is the group of countries Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. It is difficult to find a lot of information on the beginning of Scandinavian theatre without books that specialize on writing about the history of Scandinavian theatre specifically. However, it is known that a type of viking theatre existed in the 10th century A.D. because Harald the Bluetooth (yes, his name is the source for the technology known as Bluetooth), the King of Denmark accepted baptism into Christianity after seeing a piece of Viking theatre. This piece of theatre was a drunken argument over who was most powerful: Odin, Thor, or the "new" Christian God and his son, Jesus.

The reason why theatre was not found in Scandinavian for some time between the original Viking theatre and sometime between the 16th to 18th centuries does not seem to be found online. A tiny bit is known, though. In 1722, the king of Scandinavia had banned all theatrical performances done in the French language. Rene Montaigu assembled a talented company of mostly university students in order to try to revive Scandinavian, mainly Danish, theatre. However, the company was underfunded.

Since plays in the French language had been outlawed, it was only okay to see plays in the Danish language. Ludvig Holberg started writing plays in Danish in order to entertain a Scandinavian audience. Song and dance became popular and a French ballet master, Jean Baptist Lande, was permitted to form a French opera troupe. Lande's and Holberg's talents combined talents sparked some interest in revival in the theatre. However, a fire that destroyed over 1,000 buildings in Copenhagen was seen as a punishment for godless activities happening in the theatres. This combined with the changing of the throne in 1730 quelled theatrical productions in Denmark and Norway.

However, theatre wasn't forbidden in Sweden. A theatre tht had plays in Swedish opened in Sweden in 1737. Within the first two years, twenty new plays had been produced. Theatre came back to Denmark in 1748 when the Danish Royal Theatre was founded in 1748. Ludvig Holberg resumed writing plays until his death in 1754.

(This is the entry for Friday, May 18, 2018. One of these days, things will hopefully be all fixed so I can write these blog posts in time.)

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