The article constitutes an interdisciplinary study of the comic play På Gröna Lund (1856) by Hedvig von Numers, viewed as a significant contribution to the cultural memory of Sweden’s Gustavian era (1772–1809). Building on recent theoretical perspectives, the workings of cultural memory are investigated in sev-eral dimensions. To begin with, by studying the conditions of its staging and its reception by an audience, we investigate how an experience of historical authen-ticity was created. In the next step, the historical content of the play is interpreted and contextualised by relating it to popular and scholarly historiography of the period, and by studying its use of comic conventions in the service of historical representation. Taken together, these approaches show the complexity of nine-teenth century memory culture when confronted with the recent Gustavian past.