Christiane Magdalene Jane Bøcher, née Hansen, later Berg, was a Norwegian stage actress. She belonged to the pioneer generation of the first public theatre in Norway, when the Christiania Offentlige Theater was the only standing stage in Norway, and dominated by actors of Danish origin.
Christiane Bøcher was engaged at the Strömberg Theatre in Christiania from 1827 to 1837. Founded by Johan Peter Strömberg the previous year, the theatre was Norway's first and theatre and the national stage in the 19th century. Until the employment of Laura Gundersen in 1849, however, the theatre employed almost exclusively actors from Denmark and Germany, in large because Norway did not yet have an established theatre school and trained actors. Strömberg had the ambition to create Norwegian actors, but upon the foundation of the first theatre in Norway there was not trained Norwegian actors, which made it necessary to employ Danish actors. Among the first mentioned were Christiane Hansen and Jens Lang Bøcher, both hired in 1827 and described as greatly talented students. During the 1830s, she was described as the leading lady of the stage and popular among both the public and the critics and compared to the famous Mademoiselle Mars in Paris. She was described as considerable talent as well as a sympathetic personality, and particularly praised for her good taste in regard to her costume. The theatre critic signature "R." remarked that as he could not find enough praise for her and was afraid to boor his readers by trying, he customarily gave her the critic "Madame Bøcher acted as usual"- that is to say "excellent in all aspects". After her performance as Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro, a viewer commented in Christianias Aftenblad that: However, she was not given all praise - while considered terrific in comedy, she was not regarded to be of much use in tragedy or as a singer. Among her parts where Luise Miller in Kabale og Kjærlighed Maria in Correggio and Valborg in Axel og Valbor. She retired from the stage in 1837 and left Norway for Denmark with her spouse in July of that year.
