Carl Seuerling

Carl Gottfried Seuerling (1727-1795) was a German born, Swedish stage actor and theater director.

[1] Carl Seuerling was originally from the Holy Roman Empire and arrived to Sweden as the leader of a travelling theater company in 1760.

He married the Swedish actress Margareta Seuerling (1747–1820) in 1768 and took over the theater company of her father, Peter Lindahl (1712–1792).

Historically, they have not been described as a theater company of great quality - they often experienced a shortage of staff, inexperienced actors and performed in conditions which did not give the chance of high quality scenery, the strong German accent of Carl Seuerling was caricatured, and anecdotes of failed performances circulated, particularly among the upper classes.

However, these judgement are likely overreactions from an elite audience used to the theatres in the capital; in the provincial press, the company are often given positive reviews, and they were popular among the public in the towns and the countryside in which they toured, playing a pioneering role in Swedish theater history.