Comediehuset

About

Comediehuset (The Comedy House) or Sillgateteatern (The Herring-Street Theatre) was a Swedish theatre, active in Gothenburg from 1779 until 1833. It was the first permanent Public theatre in Gothenburg and the only one until 1816. It was located at the corner of Sillgatan, the Herring-street (now Postgatan) and Nedre Kvarnbergsgatan.

Background: Prior to the foundation of the first theater, travelling theatre companies had visited Gothenburg, the first one being recorded in 1696. They were foreign, usually from Germany, but by the 1750s, the Swedish theater company of Peter Lindahl regularly visited the town. During the 1770s, amateur theater became popular among the wealthy city elite due to the theater interest of Gustav III of Sweden, and the family of Alströmer and Hall staged amateur theater and became patrons of theater. In about 1775, Patrik Alströmer and his brother Clas Alströmer, had a proper theater building constructed, known as the Comedy House. Originally of wood, it was rebuilt in stone in 1782. This was to become the 4th public theater in Sweden, after Björngårdsteatern (1640) and Bollhuset (1667) in Stockholm, and the second outside of the capital...