Word: strindbergism
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...Loeb production of August Strindberg's Dance of Death which opened on the mainstage Thursday night does for marriage what Kennedy did for Hoffa. The play is a drawing room misery in which a captain of the coast artillery and his wife Alice have by their profligate hostility doomed themselves to a life alone in the rooms of an island fortress off the coast of Sweden. They are a grim pair proceeding through their days with ritual bitterness; only the occasional Morse Code eruptions of the domestic telegraph set and the arrival of the Third Character divert the flow...
Director Laurence Senelick's fine staging against designer Franco Colavecchia's gray gauze castle walls follows closely Strindberg's instructions but with an updated and perhaps too colloquial translation. David Gullette's swaggering Captain seems too much a continental officer to have to resort to such declasse words as "bullshit." But on his own time Gallette never falters and strikes matches with such extraordinary virtuosity it is surprising he has such a difficult time with his cigar. Darcy Pulliam does nearly as well as Alice and perhaps it was only an echo from the medieval decor that gave some...
...Strindberg explicates the bleakness of marital life by demonstration, as the program tactfully puts it, "ad nauseam." Alice and the captain don't even have the consolations that a family argument affords with its own drama, distinct identity and kiss-and-make-up reconciliation. Their condition is static bitchiness that will go on forever until death-do-them part. After a while of this, even after Kurt arrives, it's difficult not to hope that death had better hurry...
Perhaps because of the severity of Strindberg's indictment of marriage it is not surprising if optimistic 20 year olds and pre-seven year itchers should find the first act over whelming. Always a popular target and one which has been riding particularly low in recent years, marriage doesn't really deserve such unrestrained vehemence. And Senelick is ruthless in his prosecution. Senelick has dealt with these love-hate relationships before. When fed up with what he considered the Loeb's non-theatrical organization, he founded "Harpo", the Harvard Producing Organization. Senelick choose for the inaugural performance "Married Alive...
...Strindberg and Senelick seem to have their vendettas and perhaps blind justice has been waylaid...