Scandinavian Drama Since the 1600s

Introduction

The Scandinavian countries have been heavily influenced by and have heavily borrowed from one another throughout their dramatic histories. At the same time, these Nordic countries—notably Norway, Denmark, and Sweden—have been influenced by European humanist literary trends that have played a major role in enhancing Scandinavian drama. Under Swedish control until 1809, Finland did not produce much literature until the late nineteenth century, when a ban was lifted to allow original productions as well as numerous translations of literature. Isolated from the other Scandinavian countries and economically dependent on Norway and then Denmark, Iceland did not acquire complete independence until 1944. Iceland produced thirteenth century sagas, lyric poetry, and histories, but no drama until the late nineteenth century.

From the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, Norwegian folk literature was the main form of literary production. A few royal documents, Danish bibles, poems, and ballads also were produced. The dramatic history of Norway was largely affected by and dependent on the country’s union with Denmark in the late fourteenth century, by its subsequent assimilation of the Danish language, and by its remaining under Danish control until 1814, when it created its own constitution.

Scandinavian drama in the first half of the sixteenth century was significantly affected by the Reformation, which seemed to sterilize literary production in all the Scandinavian countries. Because the Epiphany plays and gospel reenactments—which were influenced by European drama—were disallowed in the churches, the students of the Latin schools began to perform these religious ceremonies by marching in procession from house to house. In Sweden, the addition of folk figures and audience participation enhanced the processionals.

Soon, school drama , a pedagogical, moralistic type of play, was performed by students and greatly encouraged the development of professional drama. Particularly popular in both European and Scandinavian countries during the Reformation, school drama borrowed from both classical tragedy and comedy, from medieval drama and morality plays, and adapted these forms to the native drama.

The school dramas of sixteenth century Danish writer Hieronymus Justesen Ranch serve as one example of this early development. Karrig Niding (stingy miser), performed in 1606, printed in 1633, ridicules the habits of a miser. Samsons Fængsel (pr. c. 1599; Samson’s prison), usually considered Denmark’s first operetta and a prototype of the later elaborate Renaissance drama, is a reenactment of the singing chorus of classical tragedy. Christiern Hansen’s Den utro Hustru (pr. c. 1531; the unfaithful wife), a short, one-act medieval farce, and the anonymous Ludus de Sancto Kanuto Duce (pr. 1530) rely on Danish rather than Continental sources.

The earliest extant Swedish drama, Tobie comedia (pb. 1550), generally attributed to Olaus Petri, combines Christian moral teaching with the vernacular. Johannes Messenius sought to incorporate Swedish saga and history into the religious drama of the age and to instill national pride in his audiences. Four plays were printed and performed by his students from 1611 to 1614. Although immature, these plays are, nevertheless, the first original plays in Swedish on secular subjects.

King Gustav II added a professional troupe of players to his court orchestra in 1628; later monarchs provided quarters for private, resplendent playhouses within the palace, where ballet, opera, and drama were performed. A troupe of professional players arrived from France to introduce the French drama of Jean Racine, Voltaire, and Molière. The court was particularly fond of the new French masque and an imitation of it in Swedish by Georg Stiernhielm. Swedish writer Jacobus Petri Rondeletius’s Judas Redivivus (pr. 1614), a Christian tragicomedy about Judas Iscariot, is broadly imitative but serves as a precursor to later native drama. An adaptation of Rosimunda (pr. 1665), written by Urban Hiärne and in unrhymed dactyls, is simply an extension of school drama without the elements of didacticism so common during the Reformation. Rosimunda adopts Senecan tragedy and its themes of single-minded bloody revenge. The 1660’s witnessed the first Swedish company of actors, a student group whose activities were to enhance the development of theater in Scandinavia.

1600’s and 1700’s

Many factors contributed to the growth of Scandinavian theater in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the opening of the opera house in Copenhagen in 1703 (the 1689 edifice burned after the second performance), the opening of the court stage in Copenhagen in 1712, the opening of Denmark’s first national theater in 1722, and the later temporary Danish Royal Theater of 1747 and permanent theater of 1748. The introduction of the Royal Swedish Stage in 1737 led to the opening of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm at the end of the eighteenth century. These theaters introduced the tradition of regular performances to the general public rather than to an exclusively royal attendance, established the native comedies of Ludvig Holberg, and encouraged both French drama and sentimental drama. By the eighteenth century in Scandinavia, court entertainment and strolling players—many from England and France—gradually replaced the schools as the primary advocator of school drama.

Largely influenced by the Enlightenment and its attendant belief in wit, common sense, and rationalism, Dano-Norwegian Ludvig Holberg, the first comic theorist in Scandinavia, theorized that comedy must make people laugh and must instruct when performed. To achieve this aim, Holberg utilized the techniques and styles of previous comedy, combining the classics, in particular Plautus, with Molière’s plays and fusing these with native materials and stock characters in a comic yet realistic manner that ultimately allowed Danes to witness for the first time their own social manners, customs, and frequently objectionable habits. His comedies largely replaced school drama and restored the Danish language and Danish themes.

On the strength of his successful Peder Paars (1722; English translation, 1962), a mock-heroic epic poem, Holberg was appointed director of the newly opened Danish Theater in Copenhagen in 1722, a post that provided an opportunity for him to alternate his Danish comedy with translations of French plays. His first comedy, Den Vægelsindede (pr. 1722; The Weathercock, 1912), portrays a capricious character exposed to ridicule. The most important of Holberg’s comedies, perhaps, are Den politiske kandestøber (pr. 1722; The Political Tinker, 1914), which opened at the temporary Danish Royal Theatre in 1747; Jeppe paa Bjerget (pr. 1722; Jeppe of the Hill, 1906); and Erasmus Montanus (wr. 1723; English translation, 1885). In The Political Tinker, Holberg satirizes a political college, a mock city council, which, in examining the status of the world, exposes hypocrisy, self-interest, intolerance, irresponsibility, and stupidity. A more realistic and serious play, Jeppe of the Hill examines the human degradation of the oppressed Danish peasant, a man unable to control his life and who must be intimidated by responsible people. In Erasmus Montanus, one of his greatest comedies of character, Holberg satirizes fragmented learning and useless knowledge. His thirty-three comedies have been collected in three volumes under his pseudonym: Comedies Written for the Newly Founded Danish Stage by Hans Mickelsen (1723-1725), later increased to five volumes and called The Danish Stage (1731).

Scandinavians, however, soon became more interested in English works, elaborate Rococo drama, and sentimental comedy—all of which altered the style of Danish drama—than in the indigenous comedies of Holberg.

When Pietist king Christian VI ascended the throne, he stifled theatrical activity in both Denmark and Norway. In 1738, he decreed that no actors or their plays be found in Norway or Denmark. Only with the accession of Frederick V was the theater reopened in 1748. With no skilled actors and with a still undeveloped language, however, many Danes watched German and French rather than Scandinavian drama.

Sweden had few native dramas from which to choose, had royalty that still favored imported drama until the 1771 ascension of Gustav III, and lacked a theater until 1737, at which time Carl Gyllenborg opened the Royal Swedish Theater with his five-act satiric comedy Den Svenska Sprätthöken (the Swedish fop).

Olof von Dalin is the most eminent Swedish writer of the Enlightenment. Leaning heavily on French tragedy, Molière, Holberg, and English writers, Dalin wrote the comedy Den avundsjuke (pr. 1738; Envy, 1876) and the tragedy Brynhilda (pr. 1738). Johan Henrik Kellgren assisted the king and also assisted the playwright Karl Gustaf af Leopold.

Many important literary events took place during King Gustav’s reign, which began in 1771: the founding of the Royal Opera in 1773 to continue the lavish court ballets, the founding in the 1780’s of the Society for the Improvement of the Swedish Language, the establishment of the Swedish Academy in 1786, and the opening of the Royal Swedish Dramatic Theatre in 1788 to serve both French and Swedish companies and to produce exclusively original works rather than translations, a prohibition dropped in 1789. Because he believed in recruiting the best possible dramatists and actors, because he fostered an atmosphere of literary enlightenment and encouraged a native Swedish drama based on national themes, and because he provided the stage on which these plays could be viewed, King Gustav established a solid dramatic tradition.

The mid-eighteenth century fostered playwrights who anticipated Romantic drama: Johannes Ewald, Norwegian-born Johan Herman Wessel, and Ole Johan Samsøe . A well-known lyric poet, Ewald wrote Adam og Ewa (Adam and Eve) in 1769, a dramatic poem in the style of French tragedy. The blank verse drama Balders Død (pr. 1773; The Death of Balder, 1889), however, established Nordic tragedy on the stage. His last play, an eleven-syllable verse form, Fiskerne (pr. 1779; the fishermen), explores the heroism of the common person. A song from this play (translated into English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as “King Christian Stood by the Lofty Mast”) has become the Danish royal anthem. Wessel wrote a parody tragedy Kierlighed uden Strømper (pr. 1772; love without stockings), and in 1776 he wrote Lykken bedre end Forstanden (more lucky than wise), a mock-heroic drama that ridicules the bad imitations of French classicism. Whereas Ewald and Wessel were precursors of Romanticism, Samsøe’s national tragedy Dyveke (pr. 1796) announced the Romantic Age. This gothic drama features an innocent person who is ruined in the courtly environment in which she is forced to live.

By the end of the eighteenth century in Norway, dramatic performances solely for royalty lapsed, Swedish and Danish performers replaced foreign troupes, and actors expanded their repertoires. Stage managers improved their equipment, their scenery, and their lighting; playwrights became more abundant. All this interest led to the 1800 opening of Norway’s first permanent theater.

The Romantic and Golden Ages

The early nineteenth century witnessed the first fruits of the Romantic Age in Scandinavia and intensified Denmark’s Golden Age. Danish poet and playwright Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, influenced by Friedrich Schiller and by German Romanticism, adopted Nordic mythology and history to create Romantic works. An early play, Hakon Jarl hin Rige (pr. 1807; Earl Hakon the Mighty, 1857), evokes Hakon’s adversary Olaf Tryggvesøn, who wishes to convert Norway to Christianity and to destroy Hakon’s power. Hakon sacrifices his son to gain Odin’s favor and is in turn sacrificed. His next tragedy, Palnatoke (pr. 1809; English translation, 1855), again details a doomed struggle against Christianity. The tragedy Corregio (pr. 1811; English translation. 1846), originally written in German, dramatizes the life of the Italian painter. Heavily influenced by French classical tragedy, he wrote Axel og Valborg (pr. 1810; Axel and Valborg, 1851), a more controlled drama that treats a twelfth century tragedy of love and duty. Staerkodder (pr. 1811) involves the repentance of Staerkodder, who slew King Olaf. Hagbarth og Signe (pr. 1816), also influenced by French classicism, reveals two lovers who are parted and finally joined in death.

Various Shakespearean productions in Denmark fostered a greater attention to costumes, settings, and lighting. The ability to mount three settings at once reduced the need for partial scene shifts. Then, too, the stage was expanded, footlights were made longer, and, in 1819, oil-burning lamps replaced candles.

Whereas Oehlenschläger was interested in tragedy, Johan Ludvig Heiberg wrote comedy, introduced Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s philosophy to Denmark, and was a leading literary critic. He categorized drama by genre ranging from speculative drama—a synthesis of the lyric drama of Pedro Calderón de la Barca—to the vaudeville of Eugène Scribe. He domesticated Scribean vaudeville, a type of cleverly plotted and subplotted musical play in which songs are set to recognizable melodies and interspersed with the dialogue. An imitator of French vaudevilles and a classicist, he also wrote serious drama and gradually surpassed Oehlenschläger. Heiberg influenced the work of Søren Kierkegaard, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, and Georg Brandes. In 1813, he wrote the comedies for marionettes Don Juan, an adaptation from Molière, and Pottemager Walter (Walter the potter). Kong Salomon og Jørgen Hattemager (pr. 1825; King Solomon and George the hatter), a vaudevillian play, depicts the theme of mistaken identity. In his Om Vaudevillen som dramatisk Digtart (1826; on the vaudeville as a dramatic genre), he lauds vaudeville as a genre; thirty years later the work impressed even the great Norwegian dramatist Ibsen. Heiberg’s vaudevilles were quite successful on the stage, helped, in part, by his wife, the famous actress and director Johanne Luise Heiberg.

Hans Christian Andersen, the writer of fairy tales, wrote a dramatic parody, Kjærlighed paa Nicolai Taarn: Elle, Hvad siger Parterret (pr. 1829; love on St. Nicholas tower). In the play Mulatten: Romantisk drama i fem acter (pr. 1840; the mulatto), he portrays the reckless passion of a French countess for a racial outcast that makes the work a revolutionary exception in nineteenth century Scandinavian drama. He also wrote fairy-tale plays that combined drama, ballet, and opera. Thomas Overskou, a drama critic and historian, wrote his best-known play, Capriciosa, in 1846, in which supernatural beings intervene as in the Viennese plays by Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nestroy, which served as models for Overskou, as well as for Andersen’s fairy-tale plays.

Two other playwrights interested in Heiberg’s type of vaudevillian drama were Henrik Hertz and Jens Christian Hostrup. Besides being interested in Heibergian vaudeville, Hertz was influenced by the character comedy of Holberg. In 1827, Hertz produced his five-act satire Herr Burchardt og hans Familie (Mr. Burchardt and his family). His best comedy is Sparekassen (pr. 1836; the savings bank), in which a family mistakenly believes that they have won the lottery.

Movement Toward Realism

In Sweden during the early nineteenth century, poetry and then the novel predominated. Although Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom and Erik Johan Stagnelius wrote drama, they are mainly known for their Romantic poetry. Gradually, Sweden leaned toward realism and away from the subjective German philosophy of Schelling. Romanticism persisted mainly in the gothic and Platonic trends.

Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, a transitional Swedish figure, wrote in many genres, publishing his work in successive volumes of Törnrosens bok (1832-1851; the book of the briar rose). Johan Ludvig Runeberg, author of the Finnish national anthem, was another transitional figure; his Kungarne på Salamis (pr. 1863; kings on Salamis) is a classical tragedy influenced by William Shakespeare. A more important work, Kung Fjalar (pr. 1844; King Fjalar: A Poem in Five Songs, 1904), blends narrative and dramatic elements to achieve an approximation of Greek tragedy.

Another Swedish dramatist, August Blanche, imitated both Heiberg and Scribe. Blanche’s drama Läkaren (pr. 1845; the doctor) represents an early attempt at serious drama.

Nordahl Brun produced his tragedy Zarine (pr. 1722), and later Einer Tambeskielver (pr. 1772), the first Norwegian saga play. Henrik Anker Bjerregaard wrote a musical play, Fjeldeventyret (pr. 1824; the adventure on the mountain); Andreas Munch, an imitator of Oehlenschläger, wrote his prizewinning Kong Sverres Ungdom (pr. 1837; King Sverre’s youth) but is primarily known for his poetry. Primarily a poet, Ivar Aasen produced Ervingen (pr. 1855; the heir), a popular but weak musical play. Attempting to create a language with its roots in the native tradition, Aasen created Landsmål, or New Norse, the rural rather than official language.

Although primarily a poet, Henrik Wergeland attempted to make Norwegian drama a native drama. He wrote many now-forgotten plays and championed the Jewish cause. Mauritz Hansen based his dramas on Norwegian sagas.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, three Norwegians bridged the gap between Romanticism and realism: Jonas Lie, Alexander Kielland, and Arne Garborg. Known more for his novels than his plays, Lie nevertheless received recognition for a three-act play, Grabows Kat (pr. 1880; Grabow’s cat), which discusses conflicts between old and young; for Lindelin (pr. 1897), a four-act play; and for Lystige Koner (pr. 1894; merry wives), a three-act social comedy that deals with society women, frivolous lives, and adulterous affairs.

Largely influenced by Kierkegaard, Heinrich Heine, and Danish radical critic Georg Brandes, novelist Kielland wrote For Scenen (for the stage), which consists of three short plays: Paa Hjemveien (pr. 1878; homewards), which deals with business morality; Hans Majestæts Foged (pr. 1880; his majesty’s sheriff), a two-act play about a sheriff who becomes a laborer; and Det hele er ingenting (pr. 1880; it is all nothing), a one-act play about a man who cannot take life seriously or find love. Professoren (pr. 1888; the professor) shows a professor who sacrifices his daughter’s honor to attack his adversary, the man his daughter loves.

Garborg ’s Uforsonlige (pr. 1888; irreconcilables) deals with the peasants’ social problems, his Læraren (pr. 1896; the teacher) is a five-act play about a theologian forced to leave the university because of his unchristian life, and Den burtkomme Faderen (pr. 1899; The Lost Father, 1920) details the perils of egotism. Interested in Norwegian peasantry and in a religion free from dogmatism, Garborg anticipated Symbolism.

Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

In 1850, the Norwegian Theater began to cater to professional performers and Norwegian drama and stage design rather than to Danish drama. This interest provided the impetus for the plays of both Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and his contemporary Ibsen, both of whom abandoned the well-made play and revolutionized Norwegian thought.

Known as the “Father of Modern Drama,” Ibsen showed promise with his first play, Catalina (pb. 1850; Cataline, 1921), the first Norwegian play published in years. Performed in Sweden in 1881, Cataline introduced the rebelliousness that was later to characterize most of Ibsen’s plays and also revealed his gift for psychological insight. Ibsen’s early plays lean toward Oehlenschläger, reveal romantic characteristics, and detail Norwegian culture.

While stage director of Bergen’s Norse Theater, Ibsen visited Copenhagen’s Danish Royal Theater, headed by Heiberg and directed by Overskou, and studied the stage in Germany. On his tour he was impressed with the plays of Scribe, Shakespeare, Holberg, Oehlenschläger, Heiberg, and Hertz. This directing experience provided him with a remarkable capacity to portray the psychological states of his characters and to use moods, lighting, and settings to enhance the action of the play. Hermann Hettner’s Das Moderne Drama (1852) and Danish critic Georg Brandes’s Hovedstrømninger (1872-1890; Main Currents in Nineteenth-Century Literature, 1906) also influenced Ibsen. The latter discussed modernism, espousing social, sexual, and religious themes and the new naturalism promulgated by Émile Zola. Moreover, Brandes’s astute criticism of Ibsen’s technique led to Ibsen developing a more realistic dramaturgy.

After he, his wife, and their son left Norway in 1864 for twenty-seven years of self-imposed exile, Ibsen wrote the poetic drama Brand (pr. 1885; English translation, 1891) and the celebrated Peer Gynt (pb. 1867; English translation, 1892). Brand, a play that reveals Kierkegaardian thought and depicts an uncompromising, idealistic religious crusader, established Ibsen as the pioneer of revolt against tradition, compromise, and hypocrisy.

Ibsen’s middle plays, written from about 1877 to 1887, are primarily sociopolitical and moral dramas. Many of them reveal Ibsen’s radical politics, and many champion the cause of women: Samfundets støtter (pr. 1877; The Pillars of Society, 1880); Et dukkehjem (pr. 1879; A Doll’s House, 1880), his first successful social play; Gengangere (pr. 1882; Ghosts, 1885), the last Ibsen play to use the first-person pronoun; En folkefiende (pr. 1883; An Enemy of the People, 1890); Vildanden (pr. 1885; The Wild Duck, 1891); and Hedda Gabler (pr. 1891; English translation, 1891).

These plays, perhaps his finest, mark a transition to Ibsen’s final phase of development, in which he continues to analyze marital relationships and to provide keen psychological insight into his characters. A favorite technique is to use the retrospective method of exposition rather than to present scenes chronologically on the stage as they occur. Many of these plays open in a calm atmosphere, then suddenly an outsider appears, one whose reminiscences create bitter memories. The plays usually end in catastrophe. The Pillars of Society, a relentlessly realistic social play, indicts a particular type of bourgeois figure, analyzes specific evils, and applauds those who free themselves from lies and conventional morality. Ghosts may be viewed on two levels: as depicting ghosts of the past, the sins of the fathers irrationally visited on the son, or as symbolizing dead beliefs that infiltrate society. An Enemy of the People, a psychological and metaphysical play, retaliates against those who had attacked Ibsen because of Ghosts. (In 1951, An Enemy of the People was successfully adapted by American playwright Arthur Miller.)

Ibsen’s next plays concern the conflict within the individual between happiness and the demands of conscience, between age and youth. The Wild Duck concludes that people are too weak to bear the truth and need lies and dreams to make existence bearable. Here Ibsen consciously alters his technique toward mysticism, a tendency prevalent in Norwegian writing of the 1890’s.

During his last phase, Ibsen became more mystical with such plays as Rosmersholm (pr. 1887; English translation, 1889), Bygmester Solness (pr. 1893; The Master Builder, 1893), John Gabriel Borkman (pr. 1897; English translation, 1897), and Naar vi døde vaagner (pr. 1900; When We Dead Awaken, 1900).

In Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891, 1913), George Bernard Shaw states that Ibsen’s concern with current abuses was his most obvious achievement. In his canon, Ibsen chooses to ask searching questions, never to answer them, to focus on incompatible family relationships, to celebrate individuality, to explore sexual relationships, and to probe psychological motivation, idealism, and illusion.

Nobel Prize winner Bjørnson, like his contemporaries Ibsen and August Strindberg, propelled Scandinavian drama to a position of worldwide prominence. Like Ibsen, Bjørnson began writing in the romantic/historical mode, but he employs different themes. Ibsen strongly endorses individualism whereas Bjørnson favors the family; Ibsen is often pessimistic while Bjørnson foresees a perfected humanity. Although Bjørnson explored social/moral problems before Ibsen did, Ibsen’s work is stronger, more imaginative, of better quality, and more universal than Bjørnson’s.

Bjørnson’s work may be roughly divided into three periods. The first period (1854-1860) includes his directorship of the Bergen Theater, where, in addition to his own plays, Bjørnson produced Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal (pr. 1777). Bjørnson stated that dramatists should be more contemporary and more interested in probing human nature but less romantic and less inclined to fit drama into the neat patterns of the well-made play.

Much of his early work, however, focuses on the Romantic themes of folklore, history, and patriotism. The list includes Mellem Slagene (pr. 1857; Between the Battles, 1948), a one-act play set in the twelfth century; Halte Hulda (pr. 1858; limping Hulda); Kong Sverre (pr. 1861; King Sverre); Sigurd Slembe (pr. 1863; Sigurd the boisterous, 1888), taken from the history of Norway and usually considered his best saga drama; and Maria Stuart i Skotland (pr. 1867; Mary Queen of Scots, 1912). His basic theme during this period was that suffering was inevitable in order to overcome weakness of character or difficult situations. Kong Sverre examines the story of a king who must overcome great odds to establish his power; once he conquers the last opposition, he dies.

From 1865 to 1867, Bjørnson directed the Christiania Theater, as had Ibsen before him. There he presented contemporary Danish and Norwegian drama, including Ibsen’s, as well as French drama and Shakespeare’s plays, and boldly experimented with theatrical techniques.

His second period includes realistic social dramas similar in theme to those of Ibsen’s second period: De nygifte (pr. 1865; The Newlyweds, 1885), Redaktøren (pr. 1875; The Editor, 1914), En Fallit (pr. 1875; The Bankrupt, 1914), Kongen (pb. 1877; The King, 1914), Leonarda (pr. 1879; English translation, 1911), and Det ny System (pr. 1878; The New System, 1913). After a one-year period of lecturing in the United States from 1880 to 1881, he wrote En handske (pr. 1883; A Gauntlet, 1886) and Over ævne, første stykke (pr. 1886; Pastor Sang, 1893; also known as Beyond Our Power, 1913), which was originally intended as a series of plays. The Bankrupt introduces a new theme in Scandinavia—the theme of money, bankruptcy, and honor.

During his last phase, he wrote Over ævne annet stykke (pr. 1895; Beyond Our Might, 1914), Paul Lange og Tora Parsberg (pr. 1901; Paul Lange and Tora Parsberg, 1899), Daglannet (pr. 1905; dayland farm), and Når den ny vin blomstrer (pr. 1909; When the New Vine Blooms, 1911).

Generally considered to his best work, Pastor Sang, or “beyond one’s power,” reveals Bjørnson’s interest in spiritual rather than social problems and his interest in the danger of overextending oneself. One of his finest dramas, it demonstrates the regenerative power of prayer.

Late 1800’s: Danish, Finnish, and Icelandic Drama

Reacting to the realism and naturalism of the 1870’s and 1880’s, Norway’s Sigbjørn Obstfelder wrote three plays but is mainly known for his poetry. Like other Symbolist dramatists, he wrote “static” drama, a largely obscure form that communicates via suggestion and mood.

Compared with Norway’s prestigious output, Denmark’s creativity was meager during the late nineteenth century. Noteworthy is Holger Drachman, poet and playwright, who wrote Der var engang (pr. 1885; once upon a time), a fairy-tale comedy, and Vølund Smed (pr. 1894; Wayland the smith), a lyric drama. His plays adhere to poetic and lyric forms rather than structural forms.

Although overshadowed by Ibsen, Finland could boast of a few dramatists who wrote in Swedish: Josef Julius Wecksell wrote the tragedy Daniel Hjort (pr. 1862); Mikael Lybeck used classic restraint, realism, and Symbolism in his works; Arvid Mörne wrote poems, novels, and plays; and Runar Schildt used psychological penetration and sympathy in his works.

Other Finnish dramatists used their own language, among them Aleksis Kivi, Kaarlo Bergbom, Juhana Henrik Erkko, Minna Canth, and Hella Wuolijoki. A playwright of imagination and wonderful style, Kivi authored the first important drama in the Finnish language, the comedy of peasant life, Nummisuutarit (pr. 1865; the parish cobblers). Kivi’s death marked a stagnation of literary activity in Finland until 1880, when naturalism arose with its various themes of oppression.

As in Finland, most Icelandic writers of the 1890’s were poets; many emigrated to North America because of famine and heavy polar ice drift in 1881. Iceland’s home rule, achieved in 1904, and subsequent full independence, granted in 1918, encouraged the revival of nationalism. Jóhann Sigurjónsson lived in Denmark but frequently used Icelandic themes and settings to depict possessive love. His plays include Bóndinn á Hrauni (pr. 1908; The Hraun Farm, 1916), Bjærg-Ejvind og Hans Hustru (pr. 1911; Eyvind of the Hills, 1916), and Løgneren (pr. 1917; the liar), which uses a theme from the Njáls Saga.

Known for his poetry, Matthiás Jochumsson wrote the first romantic play in Iceland, Útilegumennirnir (pr. 1864; the outlaws—the title was later changed to Skugga-Sveinn in 1898), based on an Icelandic folktale. Influenced by Shakespeare, he also wrote the historical play Jón Arason (pr. 1900). A writer known for his translations and his plays, Indriði Einarsson, a romantic, wrote Nýjársnóttin (pr. 1872; revised 1907; new year’s night), a romantic, lyric play. Influenced by Ibsen, his more realistic problem drama Skipið sekkur (pr. 1902; the ship is sinking) depicts contemporary rural life. He later turned to romantic historical and folklore themes, notably the drama Sverð og Bagall (pr. 1899; Sword and Crozier, 1912), a depiction of heathen versus Christian ideas based on an episode from the Sturlunga saga. Another play, Dansinn í Hruna (pr. 1921; the dance at Hruni), has a Faustian theme and is written in blank verse.

August Strindberg

August Strindberg—subjective, confessional, and misogynist—became Sweden’s greatest dramatist. A complex pioneer of reform, his dark, visionary mysticism added a new dimension to drama. Moving from realism to naturalism to mystical expressionism, he was the first to stage a psychological dreamworld and to explore abnormal behavior. Throughout his career, he incessantly searched for his own innovative literary forms, gradually rejecting nineteenth century staging conventions because they could not express his visionary concepts. Combining stylistic variety with economy of phrasing, his plays are compellingly direct. His sixty-two plays have profoundly influenced subsequent dramatists. His work may be divided into two periods: those works before 1892 and those after 1892.

Strindberg’s early plays—historical and realistic-naturalistic—show an indebtedness to Shakespeare; George Gordon, Lord Byron; Schiller; Oehlenschläger; Ibsen; Bjørnson; and Kierkegaard. Critic Brandes’s analysis of Shakespeare and Heiberg’s Danish comedies influenced Strindberg’s best pre-1894 history play, Mäster Olof (pb. 1878; Master Olof, 1915), a five-act drama. His historical dramas attempt to dramatize the history of Sweden from the middle of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. His realistic plays analyze the basic tendencies of human nature. Strindberg’s basic technique is to create a three-dimensional stage environment whereby he can present his central characters from myriad points of view and multiple situations to see how they respond to their world.

Strindberg gained worldwide recognition as a dramatist with his naturalistic works: Fadren (pr. 1887; The Father, 1899); Fröken Julie (pr. 1889; Miss Julie, 1912), performed in Sweden in 1906, written under Friedrich Nietzsche’s influence; and Fordringsägare (pr. 1889; Creditors, 1910). These plays eliminate nonessential detail and concentrate on the action. Strindberg termed Miss Julie, his first chamber play, the first naturalistic tragedy in Swedish drama. In the preface, Strindberg discusses musical themes and structures and promotes the aims of Zola’s naturalistic tenets: the belief that people are products of their heredity and their environment, the belief in determinism, and the belief in Charles Darwin’s theories of survival of the fittest; he did not, however, promote scientific objectivity. Instead, he advocated asymmetrical, nonsequential, impressionistically arranged dialogue that copies the haphazardness of life.

In his 1889 article “On Modern Drama and Modern Theatre,” Strindberg terms naturalism “the great style, the deep probing of the human soul.” This naturalism “delights in the struggle between natural forces” and is concerned with motive and conflict, a view echoed in his expressionistic plays. Creating an external illusion, he maintained, was simply a way to intensify dramatic mood and conflict.

From 1894 to 1897, Strindberg suffered from his “Inferno Crisis,” a period of mental breakdown and stasis following two divorces. He largely overcame his frustrations and his feelings of persecution, however, and the twenty-nine plays that emerged following his crisis include many of his finest works.

Brott och brott (pr. 1900; Crimes and Crimes, 1913) , a transitional play written just before Strindberg’s final phase, looks backward to his realistic period and anticipates his expressionist period. His post-Inferno plays are either historical or expressionistic, with the expressionistic plays probing the unexplored recesses, obsessions, and impulses of the human mind and the fifteen historical dramas focusing on specific moments and themes. These frequently autobiographical plays generally deal with morality or with the problem of evil and include the dramatic trilogy Till Damaskus (pb. 1898-1904; To Damascus I-III, 1913), a radical departure from previous stage techniques that indicates his postnaturalistic interest in Nietzschean idealism, in mysticism, and in archetypal figures; and the chamber plays Ett drömspel (pb. 1902; A Dream Play, 1912) and Spöksonaten (pr. 1908; The Ghost Sonata, 1916). One of his dream plays from this late period, The Ghost Sonata reveals Strindberg’s interest in the psychic and the occult and also anticipates the Theater of the Absurd. Using the theme of appearance versus reality as he does in all of his chamber plays, this play is written in the form of a sonata. To Strindberg, reality is redefined to indicate the irrational behavior, the fragmentary thinking, and the exaltation and ecstasy of modern visionaries.

In the introduction to A Dream Play, a highly original play, Strindberg states that he has sought to reproduce the “disconnected but apparently logical form of a dream” where everything is possible and where chronology does not exist.

1900’s: Interwar Era

The most important of the neo-Romantic Norwegian dramatists writing between the wars were the aristocratic individualist Gunnar Heiberg, Knut Hamsun, Hans E. Kinck, and Nils Kjær. Heiberg’s Balkonen (pr. 1894; The Balcony, 1922) and Kjærlighetens tragedie (pr. 1904; The Tragedy of Love, 1921) are excellent character portrayals. The latter exposes the conflict between a woman’s love and a man’s work, insists on a new psychological emphasis, and owes much to Ibsen. Primarily a novelist, Hamsun wrote the dramatic trilogy that includes Ved rigets port (pb. 1895; at the gate of the kingdom), Livets spil (pb. 1896; the play of life), and Aftenrøde (pb. 1898; afterglow). These plays attack prevalent conceptions of life and love, but the characters lack dramatic essence. Using language that is more concentrated than the lyric language of Hamsun, the neo-Romantic Kinck’s chief works are verse dramas that synthesize his themes of Norwegian folk psychology and nature. Kjær’s plays dramatize political and religious problems. He reacts not only to neo-Romanticism but also to much of the optimism of the preceding generation.

Antinaturalism, Antirealism, and Expressionism

Following Strindberg’s death, a new generation of Swedish dramatists and directors emerged who were concerned both with modernism and its attendant forms of expressionism and with proletarian drama. One important director, Per Lindberg, brought to the theater modernistic views of acting and staging that he had learned in Berlin. Seeking to revolutionize dramatic structure, playwrights often presented fantasies, hallucinations, nightmares, and other subjective experiences. In addition, they developed new lighting and staging techniques—particularly the turntable stage—that portrayed myriad moods rather than a single mood, and they excluded irrelevancy. Influenced by German expressionism, Symbolism, and Sigmund Freud, many of these playwrights were antinaturalistic.

In his important manifesto, Modern teater: Synpunkter och angrepp (1918; Modern Theatre: Points of View and Attack, 1966), the Nobel Prize-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and essays Pär Lagerkvist attacked naturalism, embraced expressionism as espoused by Strindberg, and lauded antirealism as espoused by Hjalmar Bergman. Although he attacked realistic and naturalistic plays such as Ibsen’s one-wall-away drama with its limited perspectives, he praised Ibsen’s dramatic intensity. The playwright, Lagerkvist argued, must exclude irrelevancies and must create freely to make full use of “all the possibilities of the modern stage.”

Lagerkvist’s first expressionistic play, Sista mänskan (pb. 1917; The Last Man, 1989), uses short, abrupt phrases to portray a city’s last survivors desperately struggling for existence. Himlens hemlighet (pr. 1921; The Secret of Heaven, 1966) re-creates a ghastly vision of life on Earth. On the stage, the audience sees emaciated, listless humans who are watched by God, a helpless, passive old man.

As their author matured, Lagerkvist’s plays became less visionary and obscure and simpler in form, although he was always preoccupied with the theme of good and evil. Han som fick leva om sitt liv (pr. 1928; The Man Who Lived His Life Over, 1971) marked a turning point in that the dramatist abandoned many of his symbolic methods in favor of more concreteness.

In the 1930’s, Lagerkvist became interested in European political developments. Two plays that depict his indignation with fascism and Nazism are the dramatized version of the short novel Bödelyn as Bödeln (pr. 1934; The Hangman, 1966), written to be performed without interruption, and Mannen utan själ (pr. 1938; The Man Without a Soul, 1944) . The first, a polemic against racism and Nazism, represents Lagerkvist’s visionary techniques, and the latter is heightened, suggestive realism—subtle and bare in outline—concerned with the consequences of a recently committed political murder. The Hangman, consisting of two scenes with no pauses between them, uses startling lighting effects and depicts good coming out of evil, violence, and bloodshed.

In the 1940’s, Lagerkvist returned to many of the tenets established in his Modern Theatre, particularly freedom of form. De vises sten (pr. 1948; The Philosopher’s Stone, 1966), Midsommardröm i fattighuset (pr. 1941; Midsummer Dream in the Workhouse, 1953), and Låt människan leva (pr. 1949; Let Man Live, 1951) generally focus on Sweden’s wartime affinity to Western traditions with their insistence on freedom of thought and expression. They also show a continuing interest in universal morality, in the significance of life, and in dramatic experimentation. The first play is concerned with the implications of the atom bomb; the second blends dream elements with realism to produce a dramatic fantasy. The theme exposes those who judge others. The third play shows martyrs from various historical periods; a musical technique develops the theme. Many of Lagerkvist’s plays were directed by Lindberg and his brother-in-law Bergman.

Like Lagerkvist, Bergman understood the meaningless brutalities of life and sympathized with the victims ensnared by life’s bitter trap. Both men used many of Strindberg’s dramatic forms and techniques; both were pessimistic. In his plays, Bergman fills his dialogue with unexpected phraseology, delineates the destructive forces of life, and reveals tendencies toward fatalism.

Bergman’s “Marionette Plays”—Dödens Arlekin (pr. 1917; death’s harlequin), En skugga (pr. 1917; a shadow), and Herr Sleeman kommer (pr. 1919; Mr. Sleeman Is Coming, 1944)—are absorbing experimental dramas in which people are marionettes, directed by a higher power. His plays indicate a complex, disturbing, tragic form of art. Mr. Sleeman Is Coming offers fatalistic meditations over whether human destiny is determined by irrational and darkly evil forces that control humans in a marionette-like manner.

Bergman’s successful comedy Swedenhielms (pr. 1925; The Swedenhielms, 1951) departed from his earlier style to incorporate plot complications, brilliant dialogue, and swift transitions in mood. In addition, the play served as a response to criticism of his preceding work for being too symbolic, gloomy, and obscure.

Other Swedish writers include Rudolf Värnlund, Karl Ragnar Gierow , and Ragnar Josephson . Värnlund’s interest in German expressionism and constructivism became a vehicle for his proletarian dramas: For example, Den heliga familjen (pr. 1932; the holy family) pictures a worker’s home and a Swedish labor movement beset by a strike. Both Josephson and Gierow were appointed chiefs of the Royal Dramatic Theater. In his plays, Gierow uses historical and legendary disguises to treat modern problems while describing tragic views of human destiny and appearing obsessively preoccupied with human cruelty. A more sophisticated writer than Gierow, Josephson probes the human psyche without offering judgments. His successful Kanske en diktare (pr. 1932; Perhaps a Poet, 1944) describes a man whom life has passed by and who must, of necessity, create his own life until he realizes that this imaginary life is but an illusion and commits suicide.

Ingmar Bergman, who has written and directed some of the world’s greatest films, has also been a brilliant dramatist, theater director, and interpreter of the classic repertory. As a director, he coordinated design elements, was sensitive to mood and rhythm, and always maintained a close contact between actor and audience through various visual and physical techniques (sometimes called stage tricks). His most interesting plays are Mig till skräck (pr. 1947; dread unto me), Dagen slutar tidigt (pr. 1947; the day closes early), and Mordet i Barjärna (pr. 1952; the murder at Barjärna), bizarre morality plays reminiscent of the post-1892 Strindberg.

The Danish Helge Rode, a lyric meditative dramatist, and Hjalmar Bergstrøm are closely aligned to Ibsen in thematic aspects; Gustav Wied, a cynical satirist, is closely affiliated with Strindbergian technique. Among these Danish writers, many of whom were implementing the techniques of expressionism, Kaj Munk and Kjeld Abell are better known.

In his plays, Danish minister Munk, who first lauded the superman and then the little man, portrayed violent conflicts and used the conventions of heroic drama. He attempted to invigorate modern theater vis-à-vis a return to gaudy ornaments, to violent terror, and to worldly struggles juxtaposed against religious exaltation. A controversial writer, Munk rebelled against the psychological play and its narrow “hour-long soul dissections” where nothing takes place. Instead, he believed, playwrights must affirm life despite existing terrors. Largely opposed to naturalistic tenets, Munk did not entirely abandon them. The most frequently performed Scandinavian playwright of the 1930’s and 1940’s, Munk became known for his historical play Cant (pr. 1931; English translation, 1953), a free-verse denunciation of self-righteous hypocrisy. Another historical play, Ordet (pr. 1932; The Word, 1953) , is concerned with the conflict between faith and doubt in Christianity. The protagonist, a man who believes that he is Christ, “raises” his sister-in-law from the dead. The resistance play Niels Ebbesen (pr. 1943; English translation, 1944) pictures Munk’s opposition to Nazi infiltration, a belief that later cost Munk his life. Filled with the final judgment of God, the play is imbued with bloody action and idealistic deeds of violence.

In his eighteen plays, Abell , unlike Munk, embraced experimentation and disdained realism and naturalism. He believed that audiences should participate in the theatrical experience rather than passively view it. Melodien, der blev væk (pr. 1935; The Melody That Got Lost, 1939) satirizes contemporary society and its conventionality and makes use of innovative expressionistic techniques such as curtains with bodies painted on them and mannequins acting as characters. Abell allows intrusions from the audience and incorporates elements of ballet (which he learned as a ballet set designer) and pantomime. A common theme in Abell’s canon is the “melody that got lost”—that is, the youthful sense of life that adults, constrained by conventionality and complacency, frequently lose. Eva aftjener sin barnepligt (pr. 1936; Eve serves her childhood) is a satiric antinaturalistic burlesque. His canon ends with Skriget (pr. 1961; the scream), a mystical play that works on several interrelated levels at once.

The Danish playwright Hans Christian Branner frequently depicted the transformational power of love and the inadequacy of language as he gradually moved from realism to more psychological forms. Of note are his experimental radio plays: Jeg elsker dig (1956; I love you) and Et spil om Kaerligheden og døden (1960; a play on love and death). Branner triumphed as a dramatist with Søskende (pr. 1952; The Judge, 1955), a play about three siblings who are incapable of freeing themselves from the past, and Thermopylæ (pr. 1958; Thermopylae, 1973), a pessimistic drama of ideas in which Branner seriously analyzes the concept of humanism. Jeg elsker dig is a lyric play about a couple who wish to leave their respective spouses but who discover that they cannot escape their guilty consciences.

Realism and Foreign Influence

After 1920, Icelandic literature became more realistic and more receptive to foreign influences. Kristín Sigfússdóttir interprets Icelandic rural life. Gudmunður Kamban depicts modern Icelandic life and, like Sigurjónsson, depicts possessive love. Vi mordere (pr. 1920; We Murderers, 1970), the first in a series of plays on marriage, written after his return from the United States, and Örkenens Stjerner (1925; the stars of the desert) are realistic plays critical of modern society. His last play, Komplekser (pr. 1941; complexes), satirizes the effects of Freudian complexes on marriage. Incorrectly believing that he was a Nazi sympathizer, Danish patriots shot Kamban.

The Norwegian writers Helge Krog and Nordahl Grieg are particularly noteworthy. A writer of social and psychological drama, Krog is best known for the play Opbrudd (pr. 1936; Break-up, 1939), which emphasizes dialogue and analyzes the love triangle. Like Ibsen, Krog depicts women as the stronger and more independent of the sexes. Perhaps Grieg’s death in an Allied plane over Berlin in 1943 has made him a more celebrated figure than his plays warrant; a most interesting play, however, Vår ære og vår makt (pr. 1935; our honor and our power), is a war play that owes much to Russian experimental theater, in that Grieg is concerned with sharp dramatic contrasts and effective sound and lighting effects to expose groups against groups rather than groups against individuals. Grieg chastises a merchant fleet’s owners for their exploitation of seamen and for their blatant disregard of human life in order to make money.

Post-World War II

During World War II, only Sweden was able to maintain its neutrality. Denmark and Norway were occupied by German troops, Iceland by Allied forces, and Finland became involved in a bloody war against the Soviet Union. Following the brutality and destructiveness of the war, the quest for a meaningful and existential basis of life became a driving force in Scandinavian literature. It found its expression primarily in a poetry initially permeated with feelings of impotence and fear but increasingly by a spiritual or metaphysical search for meaning. In the middle of the 1950’s, however, a gradual focusing on social and political reality became perceptible, primarily in prose works. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, this trend was manifest in an extroverted, experimental poetry. At the same time, an increased interest in drama written for the stage as well as for television was apparent, with women becoming increasingly important as playwrights. One also finds among playwrights a predilection for writing film scripts and using the more intimate cabaret genre, which includes music and song.

In the last decades of the twentieth century, the ideological approach to literature receded in favor of a more playful and experimental way of writing: Reality became mixed with fantasy, the absurd aspects of human life were shown onstage, and there was a return to a more romantic use of the past, with historical topics or portrayals of former literary and historical personalities taking a central role.

In Denmark, the new postwar drama was initiated by Marxist poet Erik Knudsen’s satiric revue Frihed, det bedste guld (pr. 1961; freedom, the best gold), a socialist critique of bourgeois society and culture. The prolific novelist Leif Panduro, in a series of immensely popular television plays, focused on the contrast between established society and revolutionary youth, as well as people’s everyday problems and insecurity during the Cold War period. Farvel, Thomas (pr. 1968; good-bye, Thomas), I Adams verden (1973; in Adam’s world), and Louises hus (pr. 1977; Louise’s house) became, in their skillful analyses of conflicts set in recognizable, everyday situations, culminations of Scandinavian television drama. The greatest success was enjoyed, however, by Ernst Bruun Olsen . His plays combine realism with fantasy and deal with contemporary trends. Teenagerlove (1962) satirizes the cult of pop music, Bal i den Borgerlige (pr. 1966; middle-class ball) constitutes a political criticism of half-hearted socialism, and Hvor gik Nora hen, da hun gik ud? (pr. 1968; where did Nora go, when she left?) combines—with Ibsen’s famous A Doll’s House as a point of departure—a discussion of gender roles with a socialist outlook.

However, of greater artistic importance were the dramas for stage, radio, and television by Leif Petersen, which focused on human isolation behind the facade of the welfare state. This theme is presented, in particular, in Petersen’s plays of the 1970’s: Fremad (pr. 1974; forward) and Nix pille (pr. 1976; don’t touch).

In Danish literature more than in that of other Scandinavian countries, women found their own voice on the stage. Since 1971 Ulla Ryum has written more than two dozen dramas, most of which are set in a future world in which imagination and poetry are contrasted against the representatives of a brutal, militarized world. Og fuglene synger igen (pr. 1980; and the birds sing again), a representative title of Ryum’s plays, simultaneously shows various sequences of the plot unchronologically and uses a highly stylized milieu.

Two prominent playwrights are Bohr Hansen and Astrid Saalbach, whose plays have developed from a more traditional form toward increased experimentation, as evidenced by Saalbach’s Morgen og aften (pr. 1993; Morning and Evening, 1996) and Aske til aske, støv til støv (pr. 1998; ashes to ashes, dust to dust), in which several authorial voices are employed to reshuffle the concepts of time and place. Thematically, however, she holds on to her original topic: psychological analyses of human behavior and attitudes that are guided by misunderstandings and lies. While the same topic is treated by Hansen in plays such as Verden bag væggen (2001; the world behind the wall), about children’s fear and the adults’ powerlessness, Hansen nonetheless has chosen humor and irony to express his concern about human loneliness and isolation in contemporary Denmark.

During the 1960’s, a political radicalization began to be noticeable in the postwar literatures of the other Scandinavian countries. In Iceland it was initially voiced in poetry and prose, with Halldór Laxness perhaps the most prolific representative. However, influenced by the Eastern philosophy of Daoism, in the 1960’s he increasingly rejected the concepts of class struggle and materialism, a theme that he expressed in the comedy Dúfnaveislan (pr. 1966; The Pigeon Banquet, 1973). The novelist Vésteinn Luðviksson continued this political theme with his satirical play Stalin er ekki hérna (pr. 1974; Stalin is not here). In the later 1960’s, a resurgence of drama was perceptible, initiated with the founding of an experimental stage in the capital of Reykjavík in 1960. The most prolific playwright of the period was Jökull Jakobsson , who wrote more than thirty plays between 1960 and 1978 dealing with the generational gap and the changing social conditions after World War II. Jakobsson employed satire and, under the influence of Eugène Ionesco, features of the absurdist theater. Contemporary Icelandic drama is a flourishing genre with names such as Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Kristján Kristjánsson, and Hallgrímur Helgason.

Swedish postwar drama is dominated by Lars Forssell and Sandro Key-Åberg . In his first play, Kröningen (pr. 1956; The Coronation, 1964), Forssell provides a hero who actually dares to be afraid: Such antiheroes play an important role in his dramas. One example is King Gustav IV in the Bertolt Brecht-inspired Galenpannan (pr. 1964; The Madcap, 1973), who serves as a mirror to humankind and demonstrates emptiness and pettiness. Another superb play is Christina Alexandra (pr. 1968), a psychological analysis of the seventeenth century Swedish princess. Key-Åberg shows an infallible ear for dialogue in a series of short satirical sketches (such as O, pr. 1965; English translation, 1970), which were presented in several European theaters. These texts provide no stage directions but merely identify different voices. Some of Key-Åberg’s later plays are more conventional, even melodramatic. In 1975, Swedish novelist Per Olov Enqvist made his dramatic debut with Tribadernas natt (The Night of the Tribades, 1977), delineating the struggle between August Strindberg and his wife, Siri von Essen, during the rehearsal of a play that is based on their lives. The play became an immediate international success and Enqvist brought forth a related play, Från regnormarnas liv (1981; The Rain Snakes, 1984), in which one of the main characters is the Danish fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen. In both plays, questions of identity and integrity are central. Conflicts and emotions are likewise present in the plays of prominent Swedish playwright Lars Norén. Virtually all of his plays revolve around traumatic parent-child relations.

The most important influence on postwar Norwegian drama came from Brecht. This is, above all, the case with Jens Bjørneboe ’s Fugleelskerne (1966; The Bird Lovers, 1994). Arguably Bjørneboe’s finest play, Fugleelskerne is set in Italy, where a group of German bird lovers, whose leaders are former criminals, are about to establish a bird refuge. A battle between the locals and the intruders is won by the latter, who have money and thus power. One of the pioneers within the teleplay, both as a director and a script writer, was Sverre Udnæs . Among his most interesting plays, particularly because of their artful dialogues, are Symptomer (pr. 1971, symptoms) and Kollisjonen (pr. 1978; the collision). During the same period, Peder W. Cappelen chose an entirely different approach to his drama, writing plays consisting of allegories based either on folktales and legends (Tornerose, pr. 1968; briar rose; Hvittenland, pr. 1975; Whittenland, pr. 1989) or on myth, saga, and history (Sverre: Berget og ordet, pr. 1977; Sverre: The mountain and the word). Feminist concerns were brought to the stage by Bjørg Vik , whose To akter for fem kvinner (1974; two acts for five women) consists of a discussion among women who represent different attitudes regarding their placement in society and whose Sorgenfri (pr. 1978; free from sorrow) tells about love relationships in three generations.

Two of the most unconventional playwrights of the younger generation in Norway are Edvard Hoem and Cecilie Løveid . Hoem is a politically oriented novelist and playwright. His most successful drama, God natt, Europa (pr. 1982; Good Night, Europe, 1989), portrays an old politician and war hero who tries to come to terms with his past, which turns out to be not heroic at all. Løveid has worked directly with a major theater in the western Norwegian town of Bergen on several of her dramas, including Vinteren revner (pr. 1983; the winter cracks) and Balansedame (pr. 1986; tightrope walker). In her works in the 1990’s, Løveid moved her plots back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, employing a series of historical characters.

The most discussed theatrical text in postwar Finland was Lapualaisooppera (pr. 1966; the Lapua opera) by Arvo Salo, a Brechtian portrayal—with music—of the semi-fascist Finnish movement of the 1930’s. His subsequent stage works were similarly oriented toward an antagonistic view of Finland’s past, such as Yks perkele, yks enkeli (pr. 1985; a devil, an angel), about the great names of Finnish Romanticism. Jussi Kylätasku writes for the stage, film, and radio. In the 1970’s, he wrote two farces for the stage that dealt with traffic and military issues; for director Risto Jarva, he wrote several screenplays; and among his best works are a series of radio plays, all of which deal with the issue of crime. The stage work Haapoja (pr. 1989) describes a stereotypical Finnish killer who confronts a reformer of prisons. Like Salo before him, Jouko Turkka was able to upset theatergoers: In Lihaa ja rakkautta (pr. 1987; meat and love), the central twist of the plot is a meat-plant owner who mixes diced vagrants, marinated in alcohol, into his sausages.

Contemporary Scandinavian drama shares the vitality and eagerness to experiment, characteristics shared by other Scandinavian genres, including poetry and prose. Although the classics by Holberg, Ibsen, and Strindberg continue to be performed primarily at the larger theaters, a great number of smaller, mostly state-subsidized experimental stages have opened, presenting innumerable plays before large audiences. Scandinavian drama, much as it did during the time of Ibsen and Strindberg, earns international acclaim with playwrights such as Enqvist, Norén, and the Norwegian Jon Fosse, whose somber and pessimistic postmodern plays about loneliness and longing for love have made a definitive mark in the theatrical world.

Bibliography

Gunnell, Terry. The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia. New York: D. S. Brewer, 1995. Traces twelfth and thirteenth century influences on the dramatic tradition in Scandinavia, including the dialogic poems of the Poetic Edda and folk use of mask and costumes.

Marker, Frederick J., and Lise-Lone Marker. A History of Scandinavian Theatre. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996. A thorough study of the history and development of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish drama from the Middle Ages to the 1990’s. Focuses on major styles and trends. Special attention is paid to the interaction with European theater. Provides a select list of secondary works.

Rossel, Sven H. A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980. Translated by Anne C. Ulmer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982. A survey of all five Scandinavian literatures, including those of Finland and Iceland. Discusses not only standard works and well-established writers but also those who, undeservedly, have remained unknown to a larger audience.

Rossel, Sven H., ed. A History of Scandinavian Literatures. 5 vols. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992-2003. Five volumes present Scandinavian literature from its beginning until the late twentieth century. Also includes social and cultural history. The volumes are provided with indexes and extensive, reliable bibliographies focusing on secondary sources in English.

Zuck, Virpi, ed. Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990. A reference work with brief presentations. With bibliography and index.