Theatre History Overview - Part 23B - Scandinavian Theatre

Sweden's Royal Dramatic theatre's monopoly was dissolved in 1842. The Mindre Teatern was then founded by Anders Lindeberg, a Swedish writer and journalist. In 1852, the Norwegian Dramatic School was founded by Johannes Benedictus Klingenberg, a Norwegian military officer and engineer. He was disappointed by the by the un-Norwegian repertoire that he found when he visited the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. By 1854, the school was made into a performing arts theatre named the Christiana Norwegian Theatre. At first, Henrik Ibsen was associated with the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen where he was the stage director, but in the autumn of 1857, he took over the responsibilities for the operations of the Christiana Norwegian Theatre. He served in this capacity until 1862 when the Christiana Norwegian Theatre went bankrupt. On July 15, 1863, the Christian Norwegian Theatre and the Norwegian Theatre officially merged. It was in this same year that the Mindre Teatern was dissolved and sold to the Royal Theatre.

Also in 1863, Henrik Ibsen finished writing Kongs-Emnerne. The title means "pretenders to the crown," and Ibsen based the play on the life of King Hakon (1217-1263). In 1867, he finished writing Peer Gynt, his satire on second-rateness.The Swedish Theatre opened in 1875 which officially known as Svenska Teatern or Svenskan. It was founded by Edvard Stjermstrom on the peninsula of Blaiseholmen in Stockholm. Just a year later, Den Nationale opened in Stockholm.

In 1849, the playwright, Louise Grandberg (who was also Stjermstrom's wife), started writing and translating plays. Sometimes she did this with her sister. When they wrote together, they used the pseudonym Carl Blink. The the 1860-1861 theatre season, her play Johan Fredman was staged at the Mindre Teatern in Stockholm. Also in 1860, the actress Magda von Dolcke premiered in Denmark under the name Rosalinde Thomsen. At this time, she was in a well-known relationship with the Norwegian writer Bjornestjern Martinius Bjornson. In 1874, the actress became active in the Mindre Teatern. It is thought she started acting here because she was having an affair with King Oscar II of Sweden-Norway at the time while his wife, Sophia of Nassau, had went to Germany for her health. Dolcke then became active in Folkan and Djurgardsteastern in Stolkhom in 1876. At this time, the actor Albert Ranft started acting in Dolcke's theatre company.

Also, in 1876, Den Nationale Scene was founded in Bergen. Stjermstrom died in 1877 and his wife, the playwright Louise Granberg took over running Svenskan. In 1879, Ibsen finished writing A Doll's House which was considered extremely avant-garde in terms for feminism. After Granberg died, Svenskan became part of Ranft's theatrical empire. He also started his own traveling theatre company in 1884. In 1899, the Nationaltheatre in Christiana (later known as Oslo) opened.

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