Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) was a literary sensation in postwar Sweden. In 1947, he meets Viennese-Jewish intellectual Etta Federn in her hotel room in Paris. They become friends. Or do they?
Federn worships her dead son, a hero in the French Resistance. But how does she treat her other son, who is still alive? Dagerman witnesses her behavior, and writes his play in a flash of inspiration.
Marty’s Shadow was first performed at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm in 1948. A staged reading of the play, in a new translation by Nancy Pick (a cousin of Etta Federn) and Lo Dagerman (Stig Dagerman’s daughter), will be performed at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond Street, New York City) on Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free. A discussion will follow with the actors and director Robert Greer, Artistic Director of the August Strindberg Repertory Theatre.