Antoinette Thérèse Elfforss (née Öberg; 30 November 1823 – 16 April 1905) was a Swedish stage actress and theatre director. She was the managing director of the travelling Elfforss Theater Company between 1869 and 1888.Nordensvan, Georg, Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare från Gustav III till våra dagar. Andra delen, 1842-1918, Bonnier, Stockholm, 1918 Swedish theatre and Swedish actors from Gustav III to our days. Second Book 1842–1918'

Background

Thérèse Elfforss was born in Stockholm, the daughter of the factory owner Anders Öberg and Maria Elisabeth Kannström. She was a student of the school of the

Royal Swedish Ballet The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian ...

from 1837 and the

Royal Dramatic Training Academy The Royal Dramatic Training Academy (, also known as ''Dramatens elevskola''), was the acting school of Sweden's national stage, the Royal Dramatic Theatre, and for many years (1787–1964) seen as the foremost theatre school and drama education ...

from 1839.

Career

She was active at the

Royal Dramatic Theatre The Royal Dramatic Theatre (, colloquially ''Dramaten'') is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's five running stages. The theatre has been at its present lo ...

in 1837–42. Between 1842 and 1846, she was active at the '' Nya Teatern''. In 1847, she married the actor Lars Erik Elfforss (1817-1869), director of his own recently formed theater company. Subsequently, she performed under the name Thérèse Elfforss. She was an actress with the travelling Elfforss Theater Company and from 1886 to 1888 served as its director. She took over the leadership of the theater company during her husband's illness and formally after his death in 1869. As an actress, Thérèse Elfforss started in roles as ingenue and heroine but moved on to character roles in modern Nordic and foreign plays of the new realistic movement. According to a critic: "Her performances was characterized by spirituality, fine details, lively vitality",Antoinetta Thérèse Elfforss, urn:sbl:15962, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av N. E. Taube.), hämtad 2018-06-18. and in recognition of her ability, she was given the

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ) is a descriptive nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym in that it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name without the need for explanation; it may beco ...

"The

Elise Hwasser Ebba Charlotta Elise Hwasser née ''Jakobsson'' (16 March 1831 – 28 January 1894) was a Swedish stage actress. She was an elite actor and has been referred to as the leading lady of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in the mid 19th-century.Nordensva ...

of the countryside", after the renowned actress of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, who was at that time regarded the greatest actress in Sweden. Thérèse Elfforss enjoyed great respect during her career, particularly in her capacity as a director: :"Mrs E. was the most noted women theater director in 19th-century Sweden, and the Elfforss company was regarded as the best travelling theater in the nation during the 1870s and 1880s. The repertoire as well as the acting was of the highest level, and the director was widely respected and loved for her excellent personal virtues. As regard to the financial side of the affairs Mrs E. would likely be uncontested among all travelling theater directors. She belong to the very few among them, who were able to leave a small fortune at her passing." As director, she focused on Nordic plays, such as Swedish plays by F. A. Dahlgren, C. Axel Anrep, Emilie Lundberg, but also

Lorentz Dietrichson Lorentz Henrik Segelcke Dietrichson (1 January 1834 Bergen - 6 March 1917) was a Norwegian poet and historian of art and literature. Biography Lorentz Henrik Segelcke Dietrichson was the son of Fredrik Dietrichson (1800–52) and Marie Heiber ...

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...

and

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

. Her greatest financial success was, however, ''

Around the World in Eighty Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...

'' by

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

, and she also staged less serious

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

s, because "During the grand days of the Elfforss company in the 1870s and 1880s, the taste for operettas was so great that such an economic and practical director as Mrs E. could scarcely ignore it." Her company performed with success at the

Djurgårdsteatern Djurgårdsteatern ( Swedish for "Djurgården Theatre"), was an historical Swedish theatre, active at Djurgården in Stockholm between 1801 and 1929 (from 1863 in a new building). It was the only theatre in Stockholm outside the royal theatres ...

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, and toured

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in 1869, 1870, 1874, 1877 and 1878. In 1888, she transformed the leadership to stage director and theatre manager

August Lindberg August Lindberg (6 September 1885, Älvkarleby, Uppsala County – 15 July 1966, Stockholm) was a Sweden, Swedish trade union organizer. He was a sawmill worker by profession, and belonged to the Swedish Saw Mill Industry Workers Union (Swedish l ...

(1846–1916) after which the theater company changed its name to the Lindeberg Theater Company. She continued to perform in the Lindeberg company until 1893. Between 1890 and 1893, the Lindeberg company staffed the '' Stora Teatern'' in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

. When the Lindeberg company was dissolved in 1893, she retired with her son Julius Erik Engelbrekt Elfforss (1847- 1925) to Stockholm where she died in 1905.

References

Other sources

* Österberg, Carin et al. (1990) ''Svenska kvinnor: föregångare, nyskapare'' (Lund: Signum) * Nordensvan, Georg (1918) ''Svensk teater och svenska skådespelare från Gustav III till våra dagar. Andra delen, 1842-1918'' (Stockholm: Bonnier)

External links

Antoinetta Thérèse Elfforss, urn:sbl:15962, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av N. E. Taube.), hämtad 2018-06-18.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elfforss, Antoinette Therese Swedish theatre directors Swedish women theatre directors 1823 births 1905 deaths 19th-century Swedish actresses Actresses from Stockholm 19th-century theatre managers Actor-managers Women theatre managers and producers 19th-century Swedish businesswomen 19th-century Swedish businesspeople

Background

Career

See also

References

Other sources

Further reading

External links