SOURCE: Wikander, Matthew H. “Strindberg's Gustav III: The Player King on the Stage of History.” Modern Drama 30 no. 1 (March 1987): 80-9.

In the following essay, Wilkander critiques Gustav III.

Strindberg's interest in Sweden's Gustav III, founder of the Swedish Academy and both the Royal Opera and the Royal Theatre, began in 1882 with the Royal Theatre's plans to celebrate its centenary by presenting two of Gustav's plays. “Since Herr Josephson altered the program for the festival in September so that it became an ovation for instead of a protest against Gustav III and his so-called creation,” he wrote in a letter to Josephson, “I am prevented in every way from participating, since I have, in two special forthcoming works, made a fool of both this king I despise and his ‘Creation.’”¹ The young playwright's hostile portraits of Gustav III in The Swedish People and of the Royal Theatre in The...