Word: strindbergism
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...name of August Strindberg means anything at all to the average theatergoer, it usually means a Swedish playwright who came along after Ibsen and who has since been praised by such dramatists as Shaw, O'Neill, and Thornton Wilder, who regard him as one of their teachers. Indeed, the position of Strindberg seems to have been set at half-way between Ibsen and O'Neill in the field of modern, naturalistic drama; and since the former spells death at the box-office and the latter is a commercial risk, Strindberg, by association, has been deprived of his place...
Though "The Father" is a modern drama regardless of its age, (it was first produced in 1887), certain elements in the dialogue date it somewhat. One of these is Strindberg's preoccupation with scientific discoveries, particularly new theories in eugenics and pre-Freudian psychology, and he makes his characters use these as motivations for their actions. However, where O'Neill's characters are products of the laboratory and only clinically interesting, Strindberg's are stimulating to both the emotions and the intellect...
...darkness around him, Strindberg saw only enemies, including his own wife, whom he suspected of deceiving him and being a Lesbian. Insanely jealous, he came to believe that Siri's children were not his (a suspicion he dramatized in his play, The Father). For a while Siri and August lived in a filthy old castle near Copenhagen, together with a mad Countess who played the hurdy-gurdy, a gypsy steward who practiced hypnotism, and a pack of wild dogs...
...Strindberg's fears and passions eventually found relief of sorts in the old, familiar sound of the church bells. He came to believe that each of his ordeals was merely a penance on his own road to Damascus. He went home, and became the Grand Old Man of Swedish letters. While he was dying of cancer of the stomach, he wanted to have his children near him. One evening, while his daughter Karin was at his bedside, he picked up the Bible and murmured: "Everything is atoned for." Soon afterwards, he died...
Many commentators on Strindberg have found everything from surrealism to schizophrenia in his life & work. But he was, after all, just a son of the quiet old 19th Century...