The Famous Square Kongens Nytorv with the Royal Theatre as It Appears in Our Day 
Two Hundred Years of the Danish Stage 
By Robert Neiiendam 
On September 23, 1922, two hundred years had passed since the 
first Danish theatre was opened. This anniversary in the cultural 
history of the nation, nay of the entire Scandinavian North—for the 
Danish theatre was the first in the three countries—was celebrated in a 
festive manner by the University of Copenhagen and by all the play¬ 
houses of that city led by the national theatre of Kongens Nytory. 
On this jubilee the old Court Theatre at Christiansborg Castle, so full 
of memories from 1767, was dedicated as a histrionic museum. As the 
building is not considered fire-proof according to modern standards, it 
has not been used for theatrical productions, except on one occasion, 
for over forty years; but through the kind co-operation of King Chris¬ 
tian and the government, the theatre was turned over to Selskabet for 
dansk Theaterhistorie , which institution, with the aid of Consul Gen¬ 
eral Johan Hansen, formerly Minister of Commerce, has collected in¬ 
teresting pictures and objects pertaining to Danish theatres and their 
development throughout two hundred years. 
There is hardly another country that can show conditions similar 
to those under which the Danish theatre was established in 1722. In 
other lands the development has taken place gradually, through cen¬ 
turies of dilettantism, out of which emerged real dramatic writers and 
a regular histrionic profession, but in Denmark the art of the play- 
