Creditors (1888) is August Strindberg’s scandalous successor to Miss Julie. It is the author’s boldest statement about sexuality and one of the boldest ever put to paper. We tend to regard open marriage as unthinkable in Strindberg’s time. It was not. Strindberg was a journalist before he became a novelist, and a novelist before he was a playwright. He is reporting here, if in heightened form, and his message remains relevant, perhaps even more than it was in his time.
In the play a credulous artist, married to a polyamorous novelist, has his mind poisoned against her by her former husband. The drama–which Strindberg deemed “a tragicomedy”—is rarely excelled for its unity of construction, dramatic tension and acute psychological analysis.
Tekla, a writer in her 30s, has been ignored by Gustav, her much older antiquarian/classics scholar husband, and left him to marry Adolph, a painter her own age. Just as Tekla and Adolph come to feel they’ve outgrown the other, Gustav reappears bent on revenge and preys on Adolph’s resentments—with fatal results.
The Dream Up Festival, dedicated to new works, is pleased to have the honor of unveiling Robert Greer’s new translation of this troubling 19th century masterpiece and of helping to make it more accessible to modern American audiences.
Performances: August 27 and 28 at 6:30 PM, August 29 at 9:00 PM, September 1 at 8:00 PM, September 4 at 9:00 at THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY, 155 First Ave. (between 9th & 10th Streets).