Sissela Kyle: Sweden’s queen of variety

By Xander Brett

A Swedish cultural icon, Sissela Kyle is a regular on screen, stage and behind the microphone on radio. Juggling directing and performing must surely be stamina-sapping. Her solution? Grab naps where you can, even if it happens to be backstage.

There is busy, then there is Sissela Kyle. Performer, director, comedian… her job titles are countless. Seemingly as comfortable on stage as behind it, later this year she will traverse Sweden with a one-woman show. Next month, a musical she is directing, written by her partner Per Naroskin, takes to the stage in Gothenburg, with a nationwide tour to follow. Oh, and she has found time for an autobiography, which is due for publication imminently.

“I’m an actor first and foremost,” Kyle clarifies, battling a cold that, she jokes, makes her sound like Marge Simpson. “That’s what I trained for, and most of my life and career has been in acting, but for the past 15 years or so, I’ve primarily been a director.”

Kyle helped oversee Stockholm’s Parkteatern for a period. She is a five-time winner of the Guldmasken theatre award. That is before you count her Karamelodiktstipendiet, Magnoliapriset, Stora retorikpriset, Alf Henrikson-priset and Medaljen Litteris et Artibus, which was presented during a royal audience. Such a glittering array of prizes confirms her position in the upper echelons of Sweden’s creative society. In 2009, she was the subject of an episode of Här är ditt liv, Sweden’s answer to This is Your Life.

Sissela Kyle has been part of the Swedish cultural landscape for decades. Photo: Anna-Lena Ahlström

A cultural childhood

Kyle’s autobiography, CV. Livets gång, will be published by Norstedts next month. It has, she says, provided her with an opportunity to jump back into her life “at certain occasions or emotions,” and with hundreds of pages, it seems there is much to learn about the girl who grew up in Partille, just outside Gothenburg.

Kyle’s parents were academics and exposed her to the performing arts from an early age. She read plenty, too, and says that cultural discussions in the household were frequent. Her late mother, Gunhild, forms the subject of her aforementioned one-woman show, Min föreställning om mamma, which charts Gunhild’s success as a pioneering professor of women’s history. It will soon set off on another hectic pan-Sweden journey, beginning in Kalmar on 9 October, having already been on tour towards the end of last year.

After fledging the nest and working in healthcare, the young Kyle was employed as a supply teacher, before following her calling and heading north to Stockholm, where she was enrolled at the drama school Teaterhögskolan.

“You often hear about the death of theatre, particularly with the competition from streaming,” she muses. “But I think the performing arts are quite strong in Sweden. Theatre will survive. There will always be people telling stories, and there will always be people who want to hear them live. Theatre is rehearsed and repeated, but at the same time it’s immediate: it happens right there and then.”

On numerous occasions, Kyle has been a host for Sveriges Radio’s Sommar i P1. Photo: Mattias Ahlm, Sveriges Radio

An international exploration

Kyle may have grown into a Swedish national treasure – she has been a presenter on Sveriges Radio’s programme Sommar i P1, something equated to receiving a knighthood or damehood, no less than four times, as well as a presenter on its winter version – but she is no stranger to international attention. A Very Scandi Scandal, in which she stars as the doctor-turned-bank robber Cecilia Stensson, reached UK audiences via Channel 4’s Walter Presents service in 2019, and All and Eva, in which she plays Inger, has also made it abroad.

We are speaking after she has returned from a trip to London, buoyant with the merits of British comedy. “I want to mix dark and light, and I think England is very good at that,” she explains, “I love the English use of words and irony. I welcome it, and I think Sweden has learned a lot from it. We have German influences too, though, and many Swedish directors have been influenced by the German school of thought.” When asked if, despite its similarities, Swedish comedy maintains a darker edge to Britain’s, Kyle smiles and replies simply: “I hope so!”

She has seldom performed in English (bar, she mentions, some occasions in Australia and Belgium) and, though countless series in which she appears have travelled overseas with subtitles, Kyle insists she always acts with only the Swedish audience in mind. “Maybe the producers think about the international potential, but I don’t,” she explains. “It’s out of my hands. In film and television, the editors have so much control. It’s not like being on stage, where you can own the situation.”

Kyle will help put on a pocket musical next month. Photo: Anna-Lena Ahlström

The joy of a pocket musical

Kyle’s current focus is her pocket musical Nån måste göra det!, which she describes as containing a characteristic mix of humour and seriousness. The title translates as ‘someone has to do it’ and it will start its voyage at Gothenburg’s Lisebergsteatern on 26 September, before jetting off to theatres nationwide.

Well-known performers Helen Sjöholm and Gunilla Backman are on the cast list, appearing as Kassandra and Gunilla, two friends tasked with sorting out a library. They deliver a collection of Swedish songs, some of which have been reworked to suit the action on stage. “They sing so fantastically well that your heart breaks,” shares Kyle, who also says that she always finds the thing she’s currently doing the most interesting. “Whether it’s a TV show or in the theatre, what I’m doing fills me up so much that I don’t need to think about anything else.”

Photo: Peter Knutson

Pushed for her secret to fending off competing commitments and ideas, the response is uncomplicated.
“I’m very good at taking a nap. I’ve slept in the fika room backstage. If there’s a sofa or somewhere for me to put a mattress, I can switch off anywhere. I think that’s one of the things that has made it possible for me to be so productive. Give me five minutes and I’m back on track.”

When the busy touring months return, Kyle might be needing more power naps than usual. Not that the vigour of Sweden’s all-powerful cultural queen of variety should ever be underestimated.