Where It All Began
Confidencen’s history
The building on the outskirts of Ulriksdal Palace Park that would later house Sweden’s first Rococo theatre was built as early as the 1670s as a riding house in connection with Ulriksdal Palace. The large hall that now forms the stage and auditorium was once a single large arena with whitewashed walls, open all the way up to the roof ridge, and with eight large windows on the southern long side. There was also a tall gate through which one could ride directly into the building. On the northern long side of the building, a lower wing of rooms was added that functioned as an inn.
When Adolf Frederick and Lovisa Ulrika were crowned King and Queen in 1751, their plans to build new court theatres at the summer palaces around Stockholm could be realised. A French theatre troupe was engaged to raise the standard of Swedish performing arts, and the old riding house at Ulriksdal was quickly converted into a theatre in preparation for their arrival in the summer of 1753. The architect Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz was commissioned, who would later also design the Drottningholm Palace Theatre and Gustav III’s Opera House at Gustav Adolfs Square.
Ulriksdal Palace Theatre was decorated in a style that would become the epitome of Swedish elegant Rococo, and was equipped with a complete stage machinery system of the period, with stage settings that could be changed in a single movement. The lower extension on the northern side of the building became richly decorated foyers for the royal guests. Among these rooms, the central room, the dining room, is particularly notable, as it was fitted with a lifting device through which the dining table could be lowered into the basement for resetting and then raised again to the waiting guests. In this way, meals could be enjoyed without attendants, and private conversations “en confidence” could be held without the content spreading beyond the closest circle. This so-called confidence dining room then gave its name to the entire theatre building, Confidencen.
The late 18th century was a flourishing period in Swedish theatre history, and singers, dancers, musicians, and composers from both Sweden and the continent were active at the court theatre during this time by the Queen’s patronage. Here, the young Crown Prince Gustav also made some of his first attempts in the art of theatre and opera.
The court theatre fell into disrepair after the assassination of Gustav III, and the stage machinery was dismantled in the 1860s. The stage opening and doors to the royal rooms were bricked up, and the auditorium was transformed with rustic Renaissance décor such as ceiling beams and an open fireplace into a hunting hall for Charles XV. However, it was never completed before the King’s death, and since then the building has served as, among other things, storage, schoolroom, telegraph station, military quarters, offices, and residences.
In the 1920s, in connection with the rediscovery of the Drottningholm Palace Theatre, Confidencen was also noted, although it was in much worse condition. It was declared a listed building in 1935, and in 1965 the Ulriksdal Palace Theatre Foundation was formed with the intention of saving the theatre. In the autumn of 1976, Kjerstin Dellert came to Confidencen, saw the potential hidden in the dusty and cluttered auditorium, and thereby began a determined struggle for the theatre’s revival and restoration. The Friends Association of Ulriksdal Palace Theatre, Confidencen Rediviva, was founded in the early 1980s and was responsible for Confidencen’s operations until 1996, when the Ulriksdal Palace Theatre Foundation took over management in cooperation with the Friends Association.
With major support from sponsors, private donations, and volunteer work, a theatre organisation and a growing performance programme have been built up since the 1980s, as Confidencen has gradually been restored step by step into a functioning theatre building. The Confidencen dining room, including its table machinery, was restored between 1994 and 1997. The stage and theatre machinery were restored in 2003–2004 to their 18th-century condition, using drawings and comparisons with the theatres at Drottningholm and Gripsholm.
Today, Confidencen shines with the same splendour as in the 18th century, and has an extensive concert and theatre programme that both preserves the historical heritage and reflects today’s music and performing arts scene. With its unique historical environment, it attracts researchers and theatre enthusiasts from all over the world. In addition to a rich season of concerts, theatre, and ballet, a major opera production is presented every summer, where the entire Rococo stage machinery is brought to life.
The Story of Confidencen
It snowed on that Sunday, 17 November 1976. My husband Nils-Åke Häggbom and I were walking our dogs in Ulriksdal Park and met Princess Christina and her husband, who were doing the same. She thought we looked cold and invited us to drink tea in her home in Villa Beylon. After a while, the princess asked if I wanted to see the theatre located in the neighbouring house of Villa Beylon, the old yellow house I had passed so many times without knowing that inside it lay Sweden’s oldest Rococo theatre, sunk into an almost 200-year sleep. We armed ourselves with flashlights and walked through the snowstorm and darkness to Confidencen.
Princess Christina opened it with a large key. A stench of dirt, damp, and rubbish hit us. We continued through the large wooden doors into what had once been the theatre auditorium. The wooden beams in the ceiling had come loose, as had large sections of plaster. On the floor lay fallen planks, old church benches, parts of wall paneling, paintings covered with cloths, furniture, dead pigeons, and rusty chamber pots. On the window sills lay snow. It was like entering a ruin.
We found a ladder and placed it against the wall that covered what had once been the stage opening. Near the ceiling there was a square-metre-sized hole. I shone my light into the hole and there lay the stage space like a black abyss.
A welding flame of rage went through my body. Both as a human being and as an actress, I felt deeply wounded that the theatre had been allowed to decay for almost two centuries. When I asked Princess Christina why no one had cared for the old theatre over all these years, I was told that many before me had come here and asked the same question. A foundation had even been formed, but no money had ever been received.
With the princess’s help I got in touch with the foundation and its chairman, the retired Governor Sixten Wohlfart. When I described my calling to bring the theatre back to life, he gave me a key to the theatre with the wish that he would be kept informed of what happened. The only thing I was not allowed to ask him for was money. There simply was none.
During the winter not much happened, but by spring 1977 I had gained two allies in Margareta Strandberg, cultural secretary of Solna Municipality, and Kurt Nilsson, cultural director of the Stockholm County Council. The first thing we did was clean. For months we cleaned in our spare time, removed the coverings from the windows and let in the sunlight, vacuumed up tons of dust and mortar, and filled containers with old debris. The old theatre occupied my thoughts twenty-four hours a day. Madame Dulondel, the theatre’s first directrice, haunted me in my dreams and inspired me to clear away centuries of decay.
That spring we opened the building to visitors and gave our first concert in collaboration with Dramaten and the Royal Opera. I had come a small, small step closer to once again filling the old theatre with artists and audiences. In the summers that followed, “spectacle days” were arranged, both on the outdoor stage by the carp pond and in the theatre building on a temporarily constructed stage. People flocked there.
At first I had not thought at all about money, but in order to realise what I had promised my inner voice—to awaken the theatre and secure its future—finances became a reality. I approached several ministers of culture, but none were particularly interested in contributing to the revival of Sweden’s oldest Rococo theatre.
In the summer of 1980 I read for the first time in an American newspaper about sponsorship, learned what it was and how it worked. I began selling performances to local companies. Private donors were approached and money began to flow in. Now we could plan a full theatre season. In June 1981 the Friends Association Confidencen Rediviva was founded.
Interest in supporting Confidencen financially grew. A first renovation plan could be drawn up. The newspapers wrote about it. More and more companies showed their generosity and the number of sponsors increased. Thanks to sponsors and private donors, the theatre has been gradually renovated and restored.
The fact that the theatre has been awakened from its sleep is also thanks to all the fantastic artists who have performed on its stage. In the early summers everyone performed for free. Even though we have not always been able to pay fees equal to what musicians, singers, dancers, and actors deserve, none of those we have wanted on our stage have said no. Among the theatre’s guest artists have, from the very beginning, been both world stars and young talents who later went on to major careers. And Confidencen still strongly invests in young talent, who perform together with experienced colleagues.
After more than two hundred years of dormancy, Confidencen is once again a living theatre. The decayed auditorium has regained its splendour and is once again filled with an expectant audience. And in the place where I once climbed a ladder and looked through the sealed stage opening, every summer the curtain now rises for a season of opera, ballet, and concerts.