Shakespeare in Sweden

Abstract

When the director Per Lindberg took up the Artistic Directorship of the Lorensberg Theatre in Gothenburg in 1919, he intended to use the position to revolutionize Swedish theatre. Believing that realism, the predominant theatrical style, was outdated and made theatre unpopular, Lindberg wanted instead to create a spectacular form of theatre that he hoped would be popular with a broad audience. Shakespeare was central to this new theatre, as Lindberg framed him as an accessible, modern playwright, staging multiple Shakespeare plays at the Lorensberg. This chapter examines the role that music played in Lindberg’s Shakespeare productions, focusing on the 1922 Romeo and Juliet with music by Wilhelm Stenhammar. Both Stenhammar and Lindberg saw the theatre as a potential force for social improvement, and the chapter contextualizes their conception of modern theatre within interlinked debates about contemporary politics, theatrical style, and musical modernism. It argues that this context is crucial for understanding both Stenhammar’s resistance to musical modernism, and Shakespeare’s significance as a playwright in 1920s Sweden.