Theatre History Overview - Part 23C - Scandinavian Theatre

For awhile in the early 20th century, Albert Ranft was regarded as "the theatre emperor of Stockholm." For a bit of time, his empire included all of the private playhouse in Stockholm. He also ran the Royal Swedish Opera. He was extremely notable for The Swedish Theatre. Many plays that made history have premiered there. The most notable was probably 1907's A Dream Play August Strindberg.

There seems to be a gap for finding Scandinavian theatre history in the early 20th century. However, the second half does have information. In 1964, Eugenio Barba founded Odin Teatret in Oslo. Barba had previous worked in Jerry Grotowski's theatre laboratory in Poland. Then in 1966, Scene 7 opened in Oslo. This theatre was managed by Sossen Krohg. It was a subsection of Club 7. The theatre welcomed all kinds of experiement theatre, new types of drama, and new actors. Then in 1968, the Henie Onstad Art Centre (HOK) in Høvikodden in Bærum (neighbouring municipality to Oslo) opened. People could go see visiting international plays among all the other expressions of art displayed there.

During the 1970s, Norway still experienced many forms of experimental theatre. By 1977 there were about 16 indepdent dance and theatre companies. In 1982, independent performing groups were accepted into Norway's national budget. The system was changed to one where groups would be separated by three-year management support, one-year management support, and singular projects. Scandinavian theatre is still going strongly today.

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