"Mången god föreställning hade där gifvits" : En teaterhistorisk undersökning av Kristinehamns teaterverksamhet under det långa 1800-talet.

Sammanfattning: This thesis addresses the theatrical establishment in Kristinehamn during the long 19th century, with notable focus between the years 1835-1902. The thesis seeks to identify an overall picture of the theatrical influence in the city through an understanding of theatrical occurrences during the chosen timeline. Through Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital, the thesis aims to uncover to whom the theatrical establishment was targeted. Finally, a comparative aspect can present itself by comparing the results with previously established theater-historical research. Thus, the thesis can add to the already existing understanding of the theatrical historical research from a local perspective.     The approach is divided amongst three different research questions, all of which has one or more methods applied to them. The methods consist of both qualitative and quantitative aspects. When comparing the local perspective with the broader, national one, an abductive method has been used to identify the similarities or differences between results. The source material has been gathered from three main sources: the collections of Linus Brodin, Kristinehamns’ image archive and theatre advertisements or reviews from local daily newspapers. Brodins’ archive consists of an assortment of different types of documents, such as plays, Bills of Sales, stock letters or posters. The advertisements have been found through computer-assisted analysis via the National Library of Sweden’s database for digitalized newspapers.     The study gave extensive results that give satisfying answers to the formed research questions. Kristinehamn constructed theatres during two different occurrences, once in 1835, which then burned to the ground during the great fire in 1893, and then later in the year 1902. The city closely follows the results of previous theatre historical research, especially when comparing the results to the nearby city of Karlstad. There are just a few exceptions when it comes to a lack of visits from certain popular directors or in how some theatre administrative boards were built up. There were plenty of traveling theatre companies that visited the city, which performed a minimum of 268 different plays throughout the research period. The most popular genre was by far different variations of comedy. There is backing evidence for the theory that Kristinehamn consisted of two different culture practicing groups, the Cultural Elite, and the Cultural Novice: though the distinctions between them from decennium to decennium are vague. The results do show a clear indication that the theatre as a medium for both entertainment and practicing got more and more accessible throughout the 19th century.