Gothenburg City Theatre [Gothenburg]
Göteborgs Stadstheater
Teatro Municipal de Gotemburgo
Gothenburg City Theatre
Theatre building in Gothenburg, Sweden
theater in Zweden
The Gothenburg community theatre was born in 1918 by donations of culture intrestedpeople by the town of Gothenburg. It was made so by taking over the private Lorensbergtheatre by the donations and through the innovative directors Per Lingberg and KnutStröm both educated in Germany.By 1934 the theatre moved to the new built theatre house at Götaplatsen, where it nowstands today. The theatre house was designed by Carl Bergsten. It was built and adaptedafter the 1930s functional ideal, but it also had features of 1920s classicism. Knut Strömcreated a very advanced stage machinery for that time, and it still works today,supplemented by new technology.
In the early 1970s the operation was taken over by the City of Gotenburg, converted to amunicipal company. During that time the theatre was very vanguard artsticly. In 1978Angereds theatre opened which was a suburban theatre attached to GöteborgsStadsteater. In 1990 Angered got a new head. Also since 1978 the theatre has a stage forchildren and youth called ”Backa Teater” which by 2007 moved to facilites in Lindholmenin Gothenburg.In 1997 to 2002 the township, City of Gothenburg, rebuilt the theatre. Mainstage gotbigger, closer to the audience. The costume and reharsal studios came thoghter underthe same roof.The repertoire today, includes modern classic and as well newly written plays. Debates,concerts and gusesting performances takes place also,
The Gothenburg City Theatre was founded in 1918 through a donation of 1.000.000 SEKfrom a group of ten culture interested gothenburgers, which makes it the oldest citytheatre in Sweden. The decision to raise the building was made in the end of 1917 but thedonation made it possible to take over the Lorensberg Theatre, where the production wasto be held until the building was finished.Because of the poor economy in Sweden at the time the building was delayed for severalyears and it wasn’t until 1926 that the decision was made to let the architect CarlBergsten design the blueprints for the new theatre building, in collaboration with thedirector Knut Ström.
and in May the following year the construction had started.When the building was done in 1934 all production was moved from the Lorensberg Theatreand into the new City Theatre, and the first production to be held was WilliamShakespeare’s ’The Tempest’.In 1936 a smaller auditorium was built on the top floor, ’Studion’, a place forcontemporary drama - also the first of it’s kind in Sweden.
The main stage ’Stora Scen’ was build with an extraordinary stage machinery, an 18 meterwide revolving stage with an enormous built-in lift that goes four floors down, whichmeans that the stage also revolves four floors down.The revolving stage is in use to this day, pretty much in it’s original condition, but with theexception of being computer controlled, and it’s still an awesome thing to witness.The building also houses large workshops for scenery, costumes, masks and wigs. Andduring the renovation in 1997 an extension was built including wardrobe and rehearsalrooms.Since 2016 they also have another small stage in the basement, ’Lilla Scen’, with thepurpose of making drama that may not fit the current institutional theatre.
Built 1934. 2000-2002 major restorations.
credit Hans Wretling