Stenborg Troupe

The Stenborg Company was a Swedish Theatre Comedy troupe, active in Sweden and Finland in the 18th century. It was also called Stenborgska skådebanorna (The theatres of Stenborg), Svenska komeditruppen (Swedish Comedy Troupe) and Svenska Comedien (The Swedish Comedy) or Svenska Teatern (The Swedish Theatre). It is one of the most famous theatre troupes in its country's history. In the period of 1754–73, between the closure of the first national Swedish theatre in Bollhuset and the foundation of the next, The Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre, it was the only Theatre performing in the native language in . It also has an importance for the history of Finland, being the first professional secular theatre troupe in this country. It was a traveling troupe in 1756–80 and then housed in several buildings.

When the Swedish troupe, active on the theater since 1737, was fired in 1753 and replaced with the French Du Londel Troupe, half of the staff left for the country side to work as a traveling theater company under Peter Lindahl and Johan Bergholtz, while the other remained in Stockholm in an attempt to start a new theatre. In 1756, The actor Petter Stenborg applied and was given permission to lead a theater company in the city of Stockholm, and between 1758 and for twenty years forward, he performed as the director of a troupe of native actors in both Stockholm, in temporary locals, and touring the country, mostly in Finland, first in companionship with the tight-rope-walker von Carl Fredrik von Eckenberg; when the troupe visited Åbo in 1761, it was probably the first time a theatre troupe visited Finland.

The Stenborg troupe is most known for its activity in Stockholm, where it preserved a Swedish-speaking theater during a period when the French culture otherwise dominated the Swedish stage. The theatre did not have a good reputation among the upper-classes; the actors were from "the jail, soldiers, alcoholized lawyers, servants and washing-women", the costumes were from ragshops and the music from public-houses, (were they often performed), and the plays was described as vulgar; these judgements was given by members of the upper classes, who preferred French theater, but the Stenborg Company was much appreciated by the public, who could not understand the French language at Bollhuset. They represented a native speaking theater in the 1750s and 1760s. During the period of 1754–71, Swedish plays where only performed in the city stage of Bollhuset two times; Syrinx (1761) and Herkules på skiljovägen (1762) to the benefict of musician Petter Lillström, husband of Elisabeth Lillström actress in the Stenborg Troupe. At the performenace of Jeppe på Berget by Holberg in 1763, the theatre on Kindstugatan, it was noted that the locale had places for three hundred spectators.

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