The Valuation of Popular Theatre Performances: The Forgotten Success Story of Ljungby horn

Authors

  • Rikard Hoogland Stockholm University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v29i2.104603

Keywords:

Popular Theatre, Mediatization, Spectacular, Ranft, Historiography, Ljungby horn

Abstract

Albert Ranft started as an actor in touring theatre companies in the 1880’s, but soon became responsible for one of the most important groups. Twenty-five years later, he ran a big company with about 2500 employees, owned theatres in Stockholm and Gothen­burg as well as a couple of touring companies.

His repertoire was based on popular entertainment plays, revues, operettas, historical plays, contemporary dramas etc. Simultaneously, his companies could offer ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’ productions. Even the actors could, during just one week, work in differ­ent genres. The way of programing was for Ranft an art form by itself, and sometimes he even acted in and directed the plays.

In November 1893, at Stora Teatern in Gothenburg, he premiered a fairy tale play, and the staging was filled with spectacular effects. The play was, from the beginning, a stun­ning success with the production running for several hundred nights. Moreover, the pro­duction of Ljungby Horn became the ground stone for Ranft’s theatrical enterprise.

The article describes how this success was established through mediatization and its base on rural oral history. The performance is analyzed and discussed as a popular theatre production (McConachie, Price, Röttger, Schecter). The author proposes that a more inclusive definition of popular theatre should be used; one which also takes into account the productions that had commercial success. Popular theatre needs to be in­cluded in theatre history writing to enable a better understanding of how the theatre system has developed.

Author Biography

Rikard Hoogland, Stockholm University

Rikard Hoogland received his PhD in 2005. He is a senior lecturer in Theatre studies at Stockholm University and also teaches on the subject of cultural policy. He has pub­lished in peer-reviewed journals – Peripeti, the Nordic Journal of Culture Policy – and in an­thologies published by Cambridge Scholars, Cambridge University Press, Ohlms, Palgrave, and Rodopi. He has been a visiting scholar at Freie Universität, Berlin. The article has been developed from his work within the research project Turning Points and Continuity: The Changing Roles of Performance in Society 1880-1925 financed by the Swedish Research Council.

References

Advertisement. 1894. Stockholmstidningen 9.7.

Advertisement. 1893. Göteborgs-Posten 5.11.1893.

Amenius, Ragnar. s.a. “Frans T. Hedberg.” Svenskt biografiskt lexikon http:// sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/12687, (17.10.2016).

Bergman, Gösta M. 1966. Den moderna teaterns genombrott 1890-1925. Stock¬holm: Bonniers.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1996. The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Cambridge: Polity press.

Bratton, Jacky. 2003. New Readings in Theatre History. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni¬versity Press.

D.F. [pseud] 1894. “Från Djurgårdsteaterns première.” Aftonbladet 10.7.

Ek, Sverker. 2007. “Stockholms privatteater.” Tomas Forser & Sven Åke Heed (eds.). Ny Svensk teaterhistoria, 3, 1900-talets teater, Möklinta: Gidlunds.

G.B. [pseud] 1893 “Stora Teatern.” Göteborgs Posten 5.11.

Hagman, Justus. 1922. På scenen och bakom: Minnen och händelser från en fyrtiofemårig teaterbana. Stockholm: Seelig & Co.

Helander, Karin. 2004. “Nationell exotism – från när och fjärran.” Lena Hammer-gren et.all (eds.). Teater i Sverige. Hedemora: Gidlund.

Kern, Roger M. & Richard A. Peterson. 1996. “Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore.” Amercian Sociological Review 61:5, 900–907.

Kragh-Jacobsen, Svend. 1952. “August Bournonville og den romantiske ballet.” Den kongelige danske ballet. Svend Kragh-Jacobsen & Torben Krogh (eds.). Copenhagen, Selskabet till udgivelse af kulturskrifter.

Larsen, Merete Ahrend. 1988 [?]. Folketeatrets repertoire 1857-1988. Copen-hagen: Mellemspil.

Lindberg, Per & Sten af Geijerstam. 1946. Anders de Wahl. Stockholm: Wahl-ström & Widstrand 1946.

Ljungby horn. Playscript. Svenska teatern i Helsingfors, Svenska teaterns arkiv, Svenska litterär sällskapet Helsingfors.

McConachie, Bruce A. 1992. Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society 1820-1870. Iowa: Iowa University Press.

Molander, Harald. 1899. “Svenska Teatern.” Teatern 1.

Nivelle, Jean de. 1894. “På generalrepetition.” Dagens Nyheter 9.7.

Price, Jason. 2016. Modern Popular Theatre. London: Palgrave.

Ranft, Albert. 1921. Min repertoir 1892-1921. Stockholm: Aftonbladets tryckeri.

Ranft, Albert. 1928. Albert Ranfts memoarer: Första delen. Stockholm: Nor-stedts.

Rosenqvist, Claes. 1989. “The Actor as Big Business Man: Some Views on Re-search Concerning Albert Ranft.” Nordic Theatre Studies 4.

Rosenqvist, Claes. 1990. “Teaterkungens gränsridare”. Claes Rosenqvist (ed.). Att resa var nödvändigt. Äldre svensk landsortsteater. Gideå: Vildros.

Rosenqvist, Claes. 1998. Teaterrepertoarer i Härnösand och Sundsvall 1875-1900. Umeå: Umeå universitet.

Rosenqvist, Claes. 2007. “En ny tids teaterkung.” Ulla-Britta Lagerroth & Inge-borg Nordin Hennel (eds.). Ny svensk teaterhistoria: 2 1800-talets teater. Mök-linta: Gidlunds.

Röttger, Kati. 2016. “Technologien des Spektakels.” Ivo Ritzer & Peter.W. Schulze (eds.). Transmediale Genre-Passagen. Wiesbaden: Springer Fach-medien.

s.n. 1893. “Från konstverlden.” Göteborgs-Posten 22-11.

s.n. 1893. “Stora Teatern: Ljungby horn.” Göteborgs Aftonblad 6.11.

s.n. 1894. “Konst och Litteratur.” Stockholms-Tidningen 10.7.

s.n. 1894. “Ljungby horn.” Svenska Dagbladet 10.7.

s.n. 1894. “Notiser.” Vårt land, 10.7.

s.n. 1895a. “Hvad der passerer.” Trondheims adressavis 10.5.

s.n. 1895b. “Theatret.” Trondheims adressavis 13.5.

s.n. 1914. Göteborgs Handels och Sjöfartstidning 2.1.

Schecter, Joel. 2013. “Back to the Popular Source: Introduction to Part 1.” Joel Schechter (ed.) Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge.

Sundgren, Per. 2007. Kulturen och arbetarrörelsen: Kulturpolitiska strävanden från August Palm till Tage Erlander, Stockholm: Carlsson.

Teater-Nisse [pseud]. 1894. “Ljungby horn.” Söndagsnisse 15.7.

–x –n [pseud]. 1894. “Teater.” Nya Dagligt Allehanda 10.7.

Zachariae, F. 1919. Folketeatrets historie 1857-1908. Copenhagen.

Downloads

Published

2018-03-05

How to Cite

Hoogland, R. (2018). The Valuation of Popular Theatre Performances: The Forgotten Success Story of Ljungby horn. Nordic Theatre Studies, 29(2), 6–27. https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v29i2.104603

Issue

Section

Articles thematic section