Jönköping Theatre

August Atterström, Jönköping’s city architect since 1900, was given the honorable assignment of constructing the new theatre building. The building is built in Neo-Classical style and according to the guidelines, the old wooden town of Jönköping was to be renewed and replaced by a stone town. The building also had to be adapted to the city’s old square, which proved to be difficult. Atterström had to redesign the house five times and raise it by one floor to accommodate all the wishes. However, this was met with great protests, as many felt that the building was far too large to fit in. Jönköping’s current theatre building was inaugurated with pomp and show, opening its doors on 2nd December 1904. The inauguration celebration began with a dinner in the theatre restaurant with around 30 people, including the governor Hjalmar Palmstierna.

After dinner, the chairman of the theatre board and the governor gave speeches. They spoke about the history of the theatre and the bright future that the new theatre would bring. At 7:30 pm the opening ceremony itself began. The hall was filled to capacity and the audience was dressed in formal attire. It was clear how they were filled with admiration for the beautiful theatre. The opening ceremony opened with the music “Festoverture” by Foroni, performed by Andra Göta’s music choir. The theatre director then read a longer prologue about love and anticipation for everything that would take place at the theatre. After the prologue, the play “The Wedding at Ulfåsa” was performed by Frans Hedberg. Smålands Allehanda reported from the opening with these words: “It must be said, however, that the play went both smoothly and quickly, the distribution of roles was well-chosen.”

The newspaper also gave a review of the theatre’s decor at the inauguration: “According to unanimous statements, the theatre salon looks extremely inviting. It is not overloaded with gold, but an attempt has been made to achieve a pleasing and pleasant color effect for the eye. The parquet walls are kept in red while the parapets of the rows, which are richly decorated with plaster ornaments, have a mild, greenish tone with the plaster ornaments in white and some lifelike works in gold.”

The opening of the theatre was described as a success where everything worked as it should, in a beautiful building with a well-executed performance. Later in its history comes in the late-1910’s, when films began to be shown at Jönköpings Teater. In the late-1920’s and early 1930’s, the theatre took on an increasingly larger space and the building was rented out to Skandinaviska Biograf AB. On 16th September 1932, the theatre was rebuilt to also be a permanent movie house. In connection of this, the entrance was changed. Over the entrance hung a large canopy and a neon sign with the text “teaterbio”.

During the 1950’s, the cinema business competed with the theatre business at Jönköpings Teater, which meant that other theatre venues grew up in Jönköping. Films were shown at Jönköpings Teater until closing as a movie theatre on 30th June 1971 with Richard Harrison in “$100,000 for Ringo”.

After closing as a movie theatre, it reopened as a house for performing arts, concerts, and live entertainment, housing 353 seats in total, which remains operation to this very day.

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