The group was started in 1939 and officially organised in 1942 in Stockholm by the writers Brita von Horn and Vilhelm Moberg and the actor and producer Helge Hagerman.
The objective was to counter the carefully neutral dramatic offerings by the official theatres during World War II and encourage playwrights to write drama relevant to contemporary politics.
It was later based at Hamngatan 28, in the former flat of the operetta prima donna Anna Norrie, where from 1950 the company presented chamber theatre[3] as had previously been done in Germany, and in America by Orson Welles.
In 1948 the company added the Bygdeteater, a programme to present plays in rural areas in collaboration with agricultural organisations and the National Swedish Touring Theatre.
[5] The group gave playwrights an opportunity to experiment and launched the careers of some actors and directors; it also produced some unknown works by famous Swedish dramatists.