Welcome to Göteborg City Theatre

Dramatic theater since 1934

Göteborgs Stadsteater, the Göteborg City Theatre, operates as a municipal limited stock company, and is subsidized by the national government, the local government, and the region of Västra Götaland. Box office income accounts for approximately eleven per cent of the theatre's annual turnover.
The audiences consist primarily of inhabitants of the greater Göteborg area and the surrounding region. The theatre is implementing an action plan to attract a broader range of spectators and to reach out both to people who are not accustomed to attending theatre performances and to first generation immigrants. The theatre also has a long tradition of performances for children and young people. These are performed by an independent ensemble of the City Theatre known as "Backa Teater," that will be moving into new facilities in autumn 2007.

The repertoire

In terms of repertoire, the mission of the Göteborg City Theatre includes both safeguarding the classic theatre legacy and performing new plays by both Swedish and translated dramatists. The theatre regularly commissions works from young Swedish dramatists. The average number of productions per repertoire year ranges between 4 and 5 on the main stage, and another 4 or 5 on the smaller stage, Studion. Very popular lunch theatre productions comprise a kind of third venue. In addition to the traditional performances, the theatre organizes and hosts various activities such as public debates and open lectures, with a view to reinforcing the role of the theatre in society, with discussions of contemporary issues.

The stages

The City Theatre has its main stage (with a capacity of 600 seats) and its smaller studio stage (with a capacity of 200 seats). When the studio stage opened in 1937, it was the first of its kind in Sweden. The City Theatre is staffed by salaried employees and by individuals employed on both long and short term contracts. There is a theatre manager and an artistic director. The children's and young people's division also has an artistic director of its own.

First in Europe

The Göteborg City Theatre was the first theatre in Sweden to introduce European modernism, under directors who had studied with Max Reinhardt in Germany. This gives the Göteborg City Theatre a powerful tradition to live up to, alongside its more everyday mission of being the hub of the dramatic arts in the city of Göteborg, and for its over 500,000 inhabitants.