Gerda Lundequist

Biography

Legendary Swedish dramatic stage actress and tragedienne: The brilliant Gerda Lundequist is considered as one of Scandinavian theatre's most important modern female pioneers of the early 1900s stage. With new modern portrayals of the Ibsen, Strindberg and the classic Shakespeare leading women, her importance to modern female stage characterization in Swedish and Scandinavian theatre is not to be underestimated. Born in Stockholm 1871, she was brought up by foster mother Amalia Charlotta Ekecrantz, a manufacturer's widow, and later tutored by the great Swedish drama teacher Signe Hebbe at the Royal Academy of Music's old Theatre School in Stockholm 1886-89. Lundequist made her professional debute at Svenska teatern in Stockholm 1889, and her breakthrough came already the following year with her astounding portrayal of Kristina in play "Mäster Olof" by August Strindberg at the old Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. Then followed the magnificent and historically important portrayals of the Shakespeare women Queen Gertrude in "Hamlet" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth", title role in "Antigone" by Sofokles, Ingrid in "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen, Ingeborg in Ibsen's "The Pretenders", title role in Hjalmar Söderberg's "Gertrud", title role in "Monna Vanna" by Maurice Maeterlinck, title role in "Maria Stuart" by Friedrich Schiller, Goneril in Shakespeare's "King Lear", Irene in "When We Dead Awaken" by Ibsen... and from there on. Her thespian nickname as "Sweden's Sarah Bernhardt" is indeed flattering, in a way slightly misread and unjust for her as an actress. To change from the actress she most likely was as Antigone on stage 1908, or her Lady Macbeth in 1909, via her powerful and yet subtle performance as Margaretha Samzelius, the matron at Ekeby, in classic silent film The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) - is nothing but a presentation of a true artists development. In Of Love and Lust (1955) - at age 84! - we get to see a brilliant glimpse of a true character actress at her very element: balanced, natural and collected in all her movements and thoughts. In full control of her melodic voice, character and limbs, she delivers as the old Royal Highness a refined example of timeless female bitchiness to a fellow sister! What we get to see is not at all an overacting or old melodramatic gesticulating theatre diva (as you perhaps would expect from a stage actress of her generation and with such a record), but a complete and absolutely magnificent character actress performance. Also such roles as her lovely cynical Änkedomprostinna, Mrs Hyltenius, in "The Baron's Will" by Hjalmar Bergman (a role she played 1945, 1948 and 1949 in different stagings due to her success in it) and her simple and very moving portrayal of the lonely Mrs Dowey in J.M. Barrie's beautiful little play "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals" (in 1940), shows that she indeed had an unusual wide ability for someone of her theatre generation when it came to shift from big classic tragedy to small drama stage plays, and to work with simple means when necessary. According to colleagues and theatre people around, she was during her life described as reserved, hard to get in and as a person who never liked to talk about herself with others; she hated interviews on her roles by inquisitive journalists (and soon refused all of them!). But people who knew her closely private stated that she had a wonderful sense of humor (and because of that said they found it very regretful that she never played comedy on stage) and a very genuine warmth and kindness. So most likely she guarded her integrity well, and did hide herself in the primadonna role that somewhat became her trade mark in public, both on- and off-stage (on which subject there are many amusing stories!). But diva or no diva; there is a reason why Gerda Lundequist is still spoken of in the Swedish theatre world of today - almost 50 years after her death and nearly 100 years after her first legendary female characterizations. Many of her character portrayals of the most classic female parts became so popular with the audience and critics at the time that she was called to reprise them at other theatres later on.