The Swedish Theatre () is a

Swedish-language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the fourth most spoken Germanic language, and the first ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, and is located at the Erottaja () square, at the end of

Esplanadi Esplanadi (), colloquially known as Espa, is an esplanade and urban park in downtown Helsinki, Finland, situated between the Erottaja square and the Market Square A market square (also known as a market place) is an urban square meant for tr ...

(). It was the first national stage of Finland.

History

The first theatre in Helsinki, '' Engels Teater'', was completed in 1827. The wooden building designed by architect

Carl Ludvig Engel Carl Ludvig Engel or Johann Carl Ludwig Engel (3 July 1778 – 14 May 1840) was a German architect whose most noted work can be found in Helsinki, which he helped rebuild. His works include most of the buildings around the capital's monumental ce ...

was located in the corner of Mikaelsgatan and Esplanaden. At the time the theatre was opened it had no permanent actors and many of the actors who performed in the theatre during that time were en route to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The theatre designed by Engel soon became too small as the interest in theatre grew rapidly among the citizens of Helsinki. The new theatre building was opened on 28 November 1860. The new building, which was designed by Georg Theodor von Chiewitz, was built on Skillnaden, on the same site as the current Svenska Teatern. The first play performed in the new theatre was '' Princessan av Cypern'' by Zacharias Topelius and

Fredrik Pacius Fredrik Pacius (, ); in German and in Estonian Friedrich Pacius; 19 March 1809 – 8 January 1891) was a German-Finnish composer and conductor who lived most of his life in Finland. He has been called the "Father of Finnish music". Pacius was bo ...

. The first actors of the theatre were from the group of

Pierre Deland Pierre Joseph Deland (13 December 1805 – 13 November 1862) was a Swedish stage actor and theatre director. He was the director of the Deland Theater Company in 1833-1861, a travelling theater famous in both Sweden and Finland, and as such an in ...

. The group performed in the theatre in 1860–1861. The language was initially Swedish, but Finnish language was soon launched on stage by the Swedish actress

Hedvig Raa-Winterhjelm Hedvig Charlotta Raa-Winterhjelm, née Forssman (20 November 1838 – 7 March 1907), was a Swedish actress active in Sweden, Norway and Finland. She played a pioneer role in Finland by introducing Finnish as a stage language, becoming the first a ...

. Only three years after the new theatre building was completed it was destroyed in a fire in 1863. The building was soon rebuilt, in the

Neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, and the theatre re-opened its doors in 1866. This time the architect was Nicholas Benois from Russia. The theatre carried the name ''Nya Teatern'' (New Theatre) until the year 1887, when a Finnish theatre was opened in Helsinki. Since 1887 the name of the theatre has been Svenska Teatern. The building of Svenska Teatern was renovated in 1935 by architects

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer who created a wide array of innovative designs for buildings and monuments, including the General Motors Technical Center; the pa ...

and . The richly decorated facade of the building was replaced with a new facade representing functionalism. In the beginning of the 20th century, the directors of the theatre were mainly Swedish and many of the actors came from Sweden. In 1915, it was decided that theatre was to become a national stage for the Finland-Swedish theatre. In 1908, a new theatre school was founded by the theatre. Gerda Wrede served as its rector for over 20 years. Many pieces of incidental music by

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

had their premiere in the theatre, including the initial version of

Finlandia ''Finlandia'', Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the R ...

in November 1899.

References

External links

*
Official website

{{Helsinki Cityscape Organizations established in 1827 Commercial buildings completed in 1860 Commercial buildings completed in 1866 Theatres in Helsinki Eero Saarinen structures Neoclassical architecture in Finland Kaartinkaupunki 1860s establishments in Finland 1820s establishments in Finland