Drottningholm Palace Theatre

Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s theatre is one of the few 18th-century theatres in the world that still have their original stage machinery. The outside is plain, but inside waits an auditorium in gold and white and a deep stage where the scenery is still changed by hand.

Queen Lovisa Ulrika was very interested in theatre, and the palace got its first theatre in 1754. It burned in 1762 during a performance. Adelcrantz was commissioned to design a new one, which was built in 1764–1766. Gustav III, who wrote plays himself, made the theatre one of the focal points of the court, and several French and Swedish productions were staged here. In the 1790s activity ceased, and the theatre was used for storage.

Outside, the building is a plain rendered box with windows resembling the palace’s other buildings. Inside is an auditorium with benches at different levels and a stage that is unusually deep. Much of the decoration in the auditorium is painted to look like stucco, marble and gilding but is in fact wood and papier-mâché. Below and above the stage is machinery of ropes, drums and winches that changes the scenery in a few seconds. There are also machines for waves, clouds, thunder and wind.

The theatre was forgotten during the 19th century and rediscovered in 1921 by the literary historian Agne Beijer, who found it with its scenery and machinery almost untouched. Since then it has been used for performances every summer, above all 18th-century opera. The theatre has been part of the Drottningholm World Heritage Site since 1991. It is unique as a living museum of 18th-century stage technology.