Among stage designers in Sweden there has recently been an increasing trend to approach the content of the play they are working on in a metaphoric manner. Their aim has not, however, been to substitute for other elements in a production and to interpret the idea of the play by a synthethising image. They form functional constructions which are subject to the arrangement of the play. Their cooperation with directors and actors, however, is much deeper; they aim at making the stage set an indivisible part of the intellectual, emotional and aesthetic impact of the play. Thus for instance in the play The Princely Bootlicker, the black-brownish colour of the stage set is used to evoke the gloomy atmosphere of the time the play deals with. The text of this play is frequently naturalistic. For this reason stage designer Peter Tillberg avoids all descriptiveness, uncovers all technical aspects of the lighting and thus stresses that the action is taking place in the theatre. The stage sets by Olle Montelius for Strindberg's Gustav III can serve as another example. His decorations help to characterize the protagonists of the play, while not competing with the actors. Montelius forms the environment of the play in such a way as to contribute to the clarification of individual characters and groups in the play. To achieve greater understanding he is not afraid occasionally to transpose the place of the play elsewhere then assumed by the playwright. Contemporary Swedish designers are attempting, each in his own, individual way, to design stage Bets, which also carry their own significance.
The ranks of Swedish stage designers have traditionally been supplemented by painters and sculptors. A number of them, for instance Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss or Acke Oldenburg, are no longer guests in the area of the theatre. They are among those who have contributed to the development of stage design. In recent years the graphic artist Roj Friberg has joined them. In his black and white stage set for Witkiewicz s Mother, he uses new materials, plastics, whose surfaces are sculptored. These partially smooth and partially rough surfaces, which absorb or reflect light, thus provided lighting effects of a new quality.
Artists who previously worked in other areas of graphic art are able to enrich the scenic realization of a play by introducing new approaches to the solution of problems. Besides this, these artists are inspired to form independent works of art, which do not serve only during their concrete utilization on the stage. Such trends could be seen at an exhibition of stage sets and costumes by P. Tillberg and K. Hedeby for the play The Princely Bootlicker by Lars Noren. This type of exhibition leads to a rivival of interest in the field of stage design - and this concerns not only art critics. Recently greater attention has been paid to the work of stage designers, to a great extent also thanks to their own participation in discussion about their work and their opinions concerning the theatre.
- Sören Brunes (Sören Brunes)
* 1938, Sundsvall
Specialization: set designer, costume designer
Additional information: Trained as constructional engineer; he worked for seven years at an architectural office. Since 1958 he co-operates with the Studenťs Drama Theatre in Stockholm. In 1964 he co-founded the experimental Pistolteatern. In 1968 he designed the décor for the performance of „Hair" at the Stockholm Scalateatern. Within the recent years he has been at work at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In 1970 he designed the settings for Mahagonny by Brecht-Weill at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. He has taken part in various experimental productions in Sweden and abroad, for instance at Nancy in France and in New York. He is a member of the group Theatre Projects which is trying to bring into effect a new conception of stage design in the sense od the „total theatre".
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- Barbara Öberg
Additional information: Born in 1930 in Berlin. Has been living in Sweden since 1936. Studied at the Arts and Crafts School in Stockholm between 1947 and 1949 and at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm between 1949 and 1955. She has been working as a stage designer at the Norrköping Municipal Theatre between 1955 and 1964, and since 1964 at the Göteborg Municipal Theatre. She has designed stage sets for 63 plays, among other for Uncle Vanya and the Bear by Chehkov, The Hostage by Behan, Hamlet by Shakespeare, The Dream Play by Strindberg, The Home by Andersson and Brat, Danton's Death by Büchner, Mandragora by Machiavelli, The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, The Enemies by Gorki. In 1972 she has also written a play, Joan of Arc, where she participated as one of the directors and designers.
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Exhibiting works
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: (The Bear),
Göteborgs Stadsteater
1973
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: (The Marriage of Figaro),
Opera Göteborg
1974
- Acke Oldenburg
Additional information: Born 1923 at Mora in Sweden. Studied at the School of Arts (professor Endre Nemes i at Göteborg between 1947 and 1952. Exhibitions in 1955 and 1966 at Malmö, in 1960 at Göteborg, in 1963 in Copenhagen, in 1960, 1965 and 1969 in Stockholm. He took pait in the Academia di belli Arte in Milano in 1953, then in the 22nd Biennial of Water Colors at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1963, in the expositions Bild och Teater at the National Museum in Stockholm in 1969 and De Frie in Copenhagen in 1962. He was awarded a scholarship by the British Council in 1956 and the Swedish State Scholarship in 1966-67. He is the author of the following monumental works: sgraffito at Skovde (80 sq. m.) in 1955, stucco lustro in Stockholm (40 sq. m.) in 1957, tapestry at Sigtuna (12 sq. m.) and small square in paving-stone at Örebro (170 sq. m.) in 1969-1970. His works are located, among others, in the National Museum, in the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm as well as in the museums at Göteborg and Malmö. As scenographer he has brought into effect the stage and costume designs for a play by Campanelli at the Borás Municipal Theatre in 1964, for Le Marriage by Gombrowicz in 1966 and for The Threepenny Opera by Brecht in 1988-69 at the Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, both directed by Alf Sjöberg.
Exhibiting works
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: (Galileo),
Dramatiska Teatern
1974
- Styrbjörn ENGSTRÖM
Additional information: Born in 1944 in Stockholm. He graduated from the College of Arts in Stockholm as an industrial designer, specializing in glass. During the period 1969-1971 he worked as a designer at the glass factory at Orrefors.In 1970 he exhibited his glass work at Heal's in London and Eaton's in Toronto. Since 1971 he has designed a number of sets for the 2nd programme of
Swedish Television. In 1974 he designed the stage for Ibsen's An Enemy of the People for the Royal Dramatic Theatre and in 1975 for Home Again by Schildt and Bargom. Together with director Lars Lofgren he designed the stage sets for Kennedy's Children by R. Patrick for Stadsteatern-Klarateatern in Stockholm.
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- Roj FRIBERG
Additional information: Born in 1934 in Sweden. He studied at the School of Arts and Crafts and at the School of Arts in Göteborg, during the period 1957-1963. Since 1954 he has held separate exhibitions in Stockholm, Göteborg and many other Swedish cities, as well as in Copenhagen, Berlin and Paris. He is represented with pictures in numerous art galleries in Scandinavia. He has with great success designed stage sets for two plays at the Dramaten Theater in Stockholm; The Mother by Stanislav Witkiewicz and The Enemies by Gorki. Alf Sjöberg was the director of both performances.
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- Kerstin HEDEBY
Additional information: Born in 1926 in Linköping. She studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm during 1948-50. She has designed sets and costumes for the Civic Theatre in Malmö, The Royal Theatre in Stockholm, The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen,
The American Ballet and the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. She is represented with paintings at the Art Gallery /Nationalmuseum/ in Stockholm and at art galleries in Malmö, Linköping, and Norrköping.
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Exhibiting works
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: (The Princely Bootlicker),
Dramatiska teatern
1973
- Leif MEREUS
Additional information: Born in 1941 in Simrishamn. He studied at the Arts and Crafts School in Göteborg. Since his first stage design in 1967, The Raft by K. Andersson, he has designed sets and costumes for about 40 plays at the Civic Theatre in Göteborg, as well as Brecht's Herr Puntila and His Man Matti and Don Juan, both directed by Ralf Langbacka at the Det Danske Teater in Copenhagen and the Rise and Fall of the Town of Mahagonny and Don Juan by the same author, produced at the Swedish National Theatre Centre. Since 1967 he works for the Civic Theatre in Göteborg.
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Exhibiting works
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: (Saint Joan of the Stockyards),
Göteborg Stadsteater
1973
- Olle MONTELIUS
Additional information: Born in 1923 in Uppsala. Learned the profession during the forties in Stockholm. He has worked as stage designer at the Helsingborg City Theatre, at the Uppsala-Gavle City Theatre and since 1964 at the Göteborg City Theatre. He has designed sets for approximately 200 plays, among others for Hamlet and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, for Brand and Peer Gynt by Ibsen, for Galileo by Brecht, for Gustav Vasa and Gustav III by Strindberg, for Marat-Sade by Peter Weiss, for Tartuffe by Moliere. He has also designed for television and made illustration for several magazines and books for children.
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- Peter TILLBERG
Additional information: Born in 1946 in Stockholm; he studied painting at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm between 1964-69. He first exhibited in London in 1968 at the art's lab, Drury Lane and in Stockholm in 1969. After several exhibitions in Scandinavia and Poland, he is currently exhibiting paintings and sculptures in the German Federal Republic, under the title The New Realism from Sweden. He designs stage sets for the Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
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Exhibiting works
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: (The Princely Bootlicker),
Dramatiska Teatern
1973
- Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss
Additional information: Born in Switzerland, she spent her childhood in Austria and Holland. She studied sculptor, ceramics and stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam and at the Arts and Crafts School in Stockholm. Professionally she has worked as a stage designer, in ceramics and as an industrial designer. She lectures at the Dramatic Institute in Stockholm. Among her graphic arts are murals in concrete and stoneware for public buildings, among others for the new Radio and Television Building and for the lobby of the Metal Workers Trade Union. Among her numerous stage designs, the
following deserve special mention: the world premiere of the play Marat-Sade by P. Weiss at the Schillertheater in Berlin /directed by K. Swinarski/, Macbeth by Shakespeare at the same theatre /directed by F.Kortner/, the second version of Marat-Sade at the Aldwych Theatre in London /directed by P. Brook/ and the film adaption of this play in New York; The Dance of Death by Strindberg at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm /directed by U. Palme/; the third version of Marat-Sade at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm /directed by F. Sundstrom/; The Investigation
by Peter Weiss at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm /directed by I. Bergman/; the world premiére of the Song of the Lusitanian Bogey by P. Weiss at the Scalateatern in Stockholm and at the Experimente Theatre in Frankfurt/M; St Joan of the Stockyards by B.Brecht at the Municipal Theatre in Stockholm /co-directing with J. Bergensträhle/; world premiére of the Vietnamdiskurs by P. Weiss at the Municipal Theatre in Frankfurt/M /directed by H. Buckwitz/; the Blood Wedding by F. García Lorca at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm /co-directing with D. Feuer/. Hers works are to be found, among others, in the National Museum in Stockholm, in Drottningholm's Theatre Museum in Stockholm and in the Syracuse, Museum in the USA. She has been awarded prizes for the best stage designs in New York in 1967 and at Novi Sad in 1969. Among others, she has exhibited in Stockholm, Paris, New York, Berlin and at Leipzig. In the period 1970-74 she has designed, among others, the stage sets for the following: Show by Lars Forsell,
directed by Ingmar Bergman, Holderlin by Peter Weiss, directed by Lars Göran Carlsson, and A Beautiful Song about Love by G. Grafström, directed by Gunnel Lindblom, all at the Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm; for the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart for the Netherlands Opera Festival, directed by Friedrich Götz at the Municipal Theatre in Amsterdam and later played at the Circusteater in Scheveningen, in Rotterdam and at Utrecht; Myths by Ulla Ryum, produced at the Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and directed by Anita Brundahl and Twelfth Night by W. Shakespeare, directed by
Ingmar Bergman at the same theatre.
Exhibiting works
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: (Twelfth Night),
Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern
1975
