Reviews for Strindberg: Five Plays

The average rating for Strindberg: Five Plays based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-04-26 00:00:00 Terry Bardsley Auguste Strindberg is a major playwright with whom I've too long been unfamiliar. He's a significant influence on the development of western theater. This succinct collection of five of his best works, quickly supplies my lack. I'm midway through this little tome--its brisk reading--and immediately grasp a sense of his style. Frankly--although I can see why he became so influential--some of his inventiveness is not anything I'd seek out more of. Strindberg was writing in the 1890s - 1910s and there's fascination in that alone: plenty of quirky military officers, wealthy families, landed gentry, & devoted servants in his scenarios--a glimpse of old 'class-riven' Europe. But the emotions he explores among his tortured characters are shrill, strained, over-febrile. Lurid. Everyone is a little high-strung and feverish in these plays; all-too-ready to break into frenzied speeches; gnash their teeth; tear their hair. It's quite over-wrought. There's a lot of characters extremely worried about 'their honor' and 'their reputation'. The best play so far is the intriguing 'Dance of Death' which takes place (and this indicates the kind of thing you'll find in Strindberg) in a stone-block tower in a military garrison in an army outpost on a remote island off the coast. Communication with the mainland is via telegraph only. You get the idea. Where Strindberg excels, though--I must say this in closing--is in one very valuable area of stage-writing: his depictions of married life. The conversations between husbands and wives here are superb and spot-on. Hilarious. No one does 'old married couples' like Strindberg! For this alone, I am well-rewarded.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-20 00:00:00 Tom Barnett To be honest, I only read "The Father," and I didn't like it much. One note. No subplots, just the same conversation over and over. Everything was contrived to make the one point that women will have the last say. So I didn't read the other plays.