ABSTRACT
By the 1870s historical drama, rooted in the traditions of the Romantic Movement and a patriotic interest in the great heroes of early Scandinavian history, had become a highly popular form in the Swedish theatre (Johnson 1963: 18 and Marker and Marker 2002: 2). Strindberg’s first produced work, In Rome (1870), was a history play dealing with an episode in the life of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Following the success of this early experiment – which was given eleven performances at the Royal Dramatic Theatre – the young Strindberg was ready to burst onto the national scene with another history play, Master Olof (1872). But it took nine years until the play finally reached the stage in 1881, for, as it turned out, this work challenged all conventions of the genre. Instead of an idealised hero, Master Olof gave Swedish audiences a complex and dynamic protagonist who resembled all too closely the defiant young playwright; a rebel who showed signs of human weakness and internal struggle all too clearly. While the readers of the Royal Dramatic Theatre rejected the play, arguing that it ‘lacked respect for the sanctity of history’ (Lagercrantz 1984:45), today it is seen as Strindberg’s first significant drama and the first modern Swedish play.
