Riksteatret is a Norwegian touring theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

. It was established by law in 1948. Its first performance was in Kirkenes

Kirkenes

is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...

 in 1949, with Sigurd Christiansen

Sigurd Christiansen

Sigurd Christiansen was a Norwegian novelist and playwright. He made his literary debut with the novel Seierherrene in 1915....

's play En reise i natten. The theatre plays on about 200 different stages throughout the country. Its first theatre director was Fritz von der Lippe, who held this position from 1949 to 1968. Ellen Horn

Ellen Horn

Ellen Horn is a Norwegian actress and politician for the Labour Party. She is educated at the State Acting College and has been an associate of Norsk Rikskringkasting, Nationaltheatret and is currently director of Riksteatret. During the Second cabinet Stoltenberg she was Minister of Culture...

has been theatre director from 2005.