The Swedish Theatre of To-day 
By Yngve Hedyall 
The Swedish theatre is not so old or so deeply-rooted in the 
cultural lile ot the nation as is the case in most other European 
countries. The Danes, to take a closely allied people whose develop¬ 
ment has been similar to our own, have in this respect an entirely 
consequently a different dramatic literature, 
while the Norwegian drama on the other hand is of even more recent 
date. Both Norway and Sweden possess great dramatic writers, but 
they appear only sporadically, and their works have not created a 
national dramatic art that has been able to survive. 
Since the year 1720, when peace was at last restored in Sweden 
after the exhausting wars in the reign of Charles XII, several scattered 
and modest attempts were made to establish a national Swedish thea¬ 
tre, but they did not receive the attention they deserved, and it was 
not until the reign of Gustav III that the art of the drama gained a 
firm foothold in Sweden. This brilliant and versatile monarch was an 
ardent admirer of all forms of art. Himself a dramatic writer and 
in his youth an amateur actor, he was greatly interested in the theatre, 
although it was the more pompous opera which he especially favored. 
It was he who built Stockholm’s first real theatre, the Royal Opera 
House, which was dedicated in 1782 and remained in existence until 
1890 when it was torn down and replaced by the present Opera House. 
In the beginning this theatre was also open to dramatic performances, 
but from 1792 Stockholm acquired its own dramatic stage, Dramatiska 
teatern, which however was destroyed by fire in 1825. 
It was not until 1863 that a State subsidized speaking stage was 
established, and up to that time the Opera House had to give room 
also for Thalia and Melpomene, while an increasing number of minor 
theatres were built and operated under private management. When 
in 1863 the Dramatiska teatern was opened, a Swedish company had 
for some time been giving a number of excellent productions and 
during the years that followed their work remained equal to the best 
that has ever been seen on the dramatic stage in Sweden. This com¬ 
pany particularly interpreted the classic historic and romantic drama 
in a brilliant manner, perhaps in a style a little too solemn and stilted 
to suit the taste of our time, but even to-day we often find in Swedish 
acting the grand and serious note characteristic of artists like Elise 
Hwasser, Georg Dahlqvist, and Nils Wilhelm Almlov. 
At the present time the Swedish capital counts to her 400,000 
inhabitants no less than one Opera House, in which performances are 
given every evening; a larger and a smaller speaking stage subsidized 
by the State, Dramatiska teatern and Mindre Dramatiska teatern; 
