The Dance of Death (play)
Encyclopedia
The Dance of Death is a play in two parts written by August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...

 in 1900.

Plot

In Part I, Edgar (the Captain) and his wife Alice live in a granite fortress on a desolate island. Bored and embittered, they torment each other with petty intrigues and well-worn accusations. When Kurt, an old friend and Alice's cousin, arrives to visit, they draw him into their vicious marital games.

In Part II, Edgar continues to weave his malicious plots, but his daughter Judith eventually spoils his plans.

Part I is frequently performed on its own, under the title The Dance of Death. Part II is rarely performed.

Characters (part I)

  • Edgar, captain
  • Alice, his wife, former actress
  • Kurt
  • Jenny
  • The Old Woman
  • The Watch (mute)

Characters (part II)

  • Edgar
  • Alice
  • Kurt
  • Allan, his son
  • Judith, daughter of Edgar and Alice
  • The Lieutenant

Influences and echoes

In its unsentimental, sometimes bleakly humorous treatment of a marriage gone diabolic, The Dance of Death looks forward to other contemporary dramatic treatments of matrimony. In Play Strindberg, Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire...

 condensed Part I of Strindberg's play into a terse, brutal series of boxing rounds, without any of the hopes for salvation to be found in the earlier play. In its presentation of marital dysfunction, claustrophobic atmosphere and rounds of "Get the Guests" Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...

's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. It was directed by Alan Schneider...

is highly reminiscent of The Dance of Death, as is Harry Kondoleon
Harry Kondoleon
Harry Kondoleon was a gay American playwright and novelist.He was born on February 26, 1955; and died of AIDS on March 16, 1994, aged 39.He graduated from Hamilton College and the Yale School of Drama...

's sparring match between angry and spiritually despairing couples,
The Houseguests. John Guare
John Guare
John Guare is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body...

 credited a production of Strindberg's play at the Royal National Theatre as an influence on his play The House of Blue Leaves
The House of Blue Leaves
The House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare, first staged in 1966 by Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut....

.

Some notable productions

  • With Anders Henrikson
    Anders Henrikson
    Anders Henrikson was a Swedish actor and film director. He appeared in 57 films between 1913 and 1965. He also directed 30 films between 1933 and 1956.-Selected filmography:Actor* Den starkaste...

     and Sif Ruud
    Sif Ruud
    Sif Ruud, born Sif Einarsdotter Ruud Fallde was a Swedish film actress. She appeared in 140 films.-Selected filmography:* It Rains on Our Love * Port of Call * Thirst...

    , Riksteatern
    Riksteatern
    Riksteatern is the name of the popular "National Touring Theatre"/"National Theatre Company" in Sweden. It's the biggest theatre company on tour in Sweden and can, in one way, almost be described as Sweden's national stage on tour....

     (Sweden), 1940s.
  • With Lars Hanson
    Lars Hanson
    Lars Hanson was a Swedish film and stage actor, internationally mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era.-Biography:...

     and Irma Christenson
    Irma Christenson
    Irma Christenson was a Swedish actress notable for her many roles on the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and many films as well....

    , Stockholm, 1959.
  • With Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

     and Geraldine McEwan
    Geraldine McEwan
    Geraldine McEwan is an English actor with a diverse history in theatre, film, and television. From 2004 to 2009 she appeared as Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie sleuth, for the series Marple.-Background:...

    , London, 1967. This version was adapted for film in 1969.
  • With Michael Strong
    Michael Strong
    Michael Strong was an American stage, film and television actor.He was born Cecil Natapoff in New York City and had extensive stage experience. He was a member of the Actors Studio. Among his film credits are Point Blank, Patton, and The Great Santini...

     and Viveca Lindfors
    Viveca Lindfors
    Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors , better known under her professional name of Viveca Lindfors, was a Swedish stage and film actress.-Life and career:...

    , New York, 1971.
  • With Robert Shaw
    Robert Shaw (actor)
    Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...

     and Zoe Caldwell
    Zoe Caldwell
    Zoe Caldwell, OBE is an Australian-born actress.-Early life:She was born as Ada Caldwell in Melbourne, Australia and was raised in the suburb of Balwyn in Yongala Street. Her father, Edgar, was a plumber and her mother, Zoe, was a taxi dancer. Caldwell's mother, Zoe, had a Peugeot of 1950 vintage...

    , New York, 1974.
  • With Alan Bates
    Alan Bates
    Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...

     and Frances de la Tour
    Frances de la Tour
    Frances de la Tour is an English actress perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.-Early life and family:De la...

    , London, 1985.
  • With Christian Grashof and Katja Parylas, Berlin, 1986.
  • With Jan Malmsjö
    Jan Malmsjö
    Jan Wilhelm Malmsjö is a Swedish stage and actor, musical star and singer. He is married to Marie Göranzon and father to Jonas Malmsjö.-Biography:...

     and Marie Göranzon
    Marie Göranzon
    Britt-Marie Elisabeth Göranzon Malmsjö is a Swedish actress.Marie Göranzon is since 1967 part of Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre-ensemble. She trained at Dramatens elevskola 1964-67....

    , Stockholm, 1993.
  • With John Neville
    John Neville
    John Neville, OBE, CM was an English theatre and film actor who moved to Canada in 1972. He enjoyed a resurgence of international attention in the 1980s as a result of his starring role in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen .-Early life:Neville was born in Willesden, London, the...

     and Gemma Jones
    Gemma Jones
    Gemma Jones is an English character actress on both stage and screen.-Early life:Jones was born in London, England, the daughter of Irene and Griffith Jones, an actor. Her brother, Nicholas Jones, is also an actor...

    , London, 1995.
  • With Ian McKellen
    Ian McKellen
    Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...

     and Helen Mirren
    Helen Mirren
    Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...

    , New York, 2002.
  • With Ian McKellen
    Ian McKellen
    Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...

     and Frances de la Tour
    Frances de la Tour
    Frances de la Tour is an English actress perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.-Early life and family:De la...

    , London, 2003.
  • With Kurt Voss
    Kurt Voss
    Kurt Voss is an American film director, screenwriter and musician/songwriter. He often works with fellow UCLA alumnus Allison Anders...

     and Hannelore Hoger
    Hannelore Hoger
    Hannelore Hoger is a German actress and director.- External links :...

    , Vienna, 2005.
  • With Örjan Ramberg
    Örjan Ramberg
    Ralf Örjan Valter Ramberg, né Rahmberg , is a Swedish actor, born in Örgryte, Gothenburg.-Biography:Örjan Ramberg started his acting career in musicals with successful leading parts in the original Swedish stagings of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar...

     and Stina Ekblad
    Stina Ekblad
    Stina Ekblad ) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish actress. She received a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in 1987 for her performances in Amorosa and Ormens väg på hälleberget and was nominated again in 1996 for her performance in Pensionat Oskar.Ekblad was born in the Ostrobothnian village of Solf in...

    , Stockholm, 2007 (both part I and II performed together; directed by John Caird
    John Caird (director)
    John Newport Caird is a British stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas. He is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a regular director with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre,...

    ).

Internet Movie Database entries

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