Eva Sköld was a Swedish theatrical director. She worked in many theatres throughout Sweden and the North. She had an unusually long-lasting and influential impact on Malmö Stadsteater (city theatre) for which she served as artistic director from 1980–1983.
Eva Sköld was born in Stockholm in 1928. She was the daughter of the artist Otte Sköld and the physical education instructor and author Arna Arntz-Sköld. Whilst she was a pupil of the French school she enjoyed a degree of success in swimming competitions. She attended Kungliga Svenska Balettskolan (the royal Swedish ballet school) from 1936–1939 and later studied at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1947–1948, and subsequently at The Old Vic in the same city, from 1948–1950. She was married three times: first to the journalist Gerald Tutton, second to the actor Rolf Carlsten, and third to the lawyer Sven Celander. She had three children: Eva, Johan, and Vera.
Eva Sköld began her professional career in Sweden working as a script supervisor and assistant director within both the film and theatre worlds. She worked with directors such as Alf Sjöberg and Hasse Ekman. Her own professional directing debut came through a production of John Patrick’s popular play Hjärtats dårar (The Curious Savage), performed at the Intima theatre in Stockholm and premiered on 12 January 1954. That same year Ingmar Bergman employed her as assistant director at Malmö Stadsteater, to which she would frequently and repeatedly return until 1993. In addition, she also worked at many other theatres in Sweden and throughout the North. For example, she put on the Swedish premier of Agatha Christie’s Spindelnätet (Spider's Web) at Helsingborgs stadsteater in 1957. She worked at Riksteatern from 1955–1957, and from 1958–1963. She also had visiting stints at Trøndelag Teater from 1967–1969 and Nationaltheatret in Oslo from 1971–1977.
Eva Sköld was primarily viewed as an intellectual director during her time at Malmö Stadsteater, where she put on a series of classics, from Euripides’ Trojanskorna to Molière’s Tartuffe and Hjalmar Bergman’s Markurells i Wadköping. She also directed more modern plays such as TS Eliot’s Cocktailpartyt, Vilhelm Moberg’s Din stund på jorden, and Paul Zindel’s Gammastrålars effekt på ringblommor. In addition, she directed newly-written plays such as Per Olov Enquist’s I lodjurets timma, Bjørg Vik’s Fem kvinnor, and Adam och Vera i Blackeberg by her cousin Bo Sköld. She was in many ways an ideal city theatre director who put on plays in a variety of genres which were suited to a wider audience. Further, she introduced a fair amount of foreign drama to the Swedish stage.
Eva Sköld was awarded the Kvällsposten Thalia prize in 1972 and she was elected into the Skånska Akademien as a representative of the dramatic arts in 1981. She died in Malmö in 1999.
