Who was the first native actress in Sweden?

Answer 1

In Sweden, there was never any law against women appearing on stage, as it was in other countrys in Europe; nor did the other Nordic countries have such a law. However, Sweden's first theater, Bollhuset in Stockholm, (oppened in 1667) only employed foreign theatre troups, mostly from France or Germany, and with the exeption of an al male student troup in 1686-1691, neither male nor female native actors performed there. The perhaps first female actor in the foreign troups was Ariana Nozeman in the 1650s.

The very first native actors most likely performed in travelling troups, but they did not perform in the official stages and there names are unknown.

The nobility performed in amateur performances in Bollhuset in the 1720s, but it was not until 1737, that the first Swedish speaking theatre troup, made of native actors, was allowed to perform in Bollhuset. Acording to the sources, they were made of "students, secretarys and chamber maids".

In the first performances in April, the female parts were made by men, but in May, two women were hired to play two of the four female parts in a play on the 25 May, and in June, two more was hired. Of the two hired in May, one was soon fired and her name does not appear to be known, but the other one played the leading female part of Lotta Enterfelt in the first Swedish speaking original play on Bollhuset in october 1737, "Den Svenska Sprätthöken". Her name was Beata Sabina Straas, and she is considered to be Sweden's first known professional native actress.

Beata Sabina Straas, who's birth-year are unknown, was the sister of a footman at the royal court and had ben the chamber maid of two ladies-in-waiting, which was a good experience when she played the part of Lotta Enterfelt, who were a noblewoman; she knew how to act to perform the part of a noblewoman, and was admired for her unblushing grace and a posture that were better than the German actresses though worse than the French ones. She was newly married tho a servant and known as madame Åberg. She reitred only two yeras afterward and run a coffee-house with her husband before they were, in 1745, again emplyed at court, were she remained as a house-keeper until her death in 1773.

This first Swedish speaking theatre was closed in 1753, when the Sweish actors was replaced with a French troup, and was not until 1773, that Sweden had a permanent theatre in its native language. Many Swedish actors of the 1740s are known only in name, the female ones less known than the male; the two actresses hired in June 1737 are only known as "Miss Lund" and "miss Wijkman". In 1740, four actresses were hired; Anna Maria Göttling, Brita Christina Schenbohm, Anna Lindbohm and Susanna Catharina Steenberg. The most known of the female actresses from this period was Elisabeth Lillström and Margareta Maria Fabritz, who coninued their carees outside of Bollhuset after 1753.

The development in the other Nordic countrys was similar, though it took longer in Norway and Finland, as these countries was under foreign rule; the first national theatre, that emplyed native actors, was founded in Denmark in 1748, the first femle actors their being Caroline Thielo and Lisbeth Cathrien Amalie Rose; a public Danish speaking theatre had existed temporarily in 1722-1728 but excisted of French actors trying to speak Danish. In Finland, Swedish theatre troups had toured in the 1750s, and the first public theatre was founded in 1827, whos first female star was Maria Sylvan; however, as the upper-classes in Finland, due to the long history under Swedish rule, only spoke Swedish, the Finnish language was not accepted on stage until the 1860s, launched by a Swedish actress, Hedvig Raa-Winterhjelm. In Norway, the first theatre in Oslo was founded in the 1770s but closed the same year; newer projects was launched the following years, and the first permanent stage was founded in 1837, though the city of Bergen got it's first theatre in 1800. Norwegian actresses worked in travelling theatre troups in both Norway and Sweden in the 18th century, but it was not until the later half of the 19th century that they were considered good enough to appear at the national stage in Oslo (founded in 1837), were first mostly Danish actors dominated.