Innocent fun – Ideological shame

Abstract

This article focuses on four plays for children, produced at the National Theatre in Oslo during the period 1924–1936. These texts contain elements of racist and fascist ideology. This ideology emerged in apparently harmless scenes with gypsies and comically stupid Negroes. The text in the fourth and last play from 1936 contains calculated political messages in line with the programme of the national fascist party.Theatre for children in the interwar period has long been forgotten and hidden. Such secrecy makes it difficult for us to analyse and understand the connection between dominant ideologies and drama for children.