August Strindberg (1849-1912) was a playwright, novelist, painter and photographer. Born in Stockholm to a father from an aristocratic family and a working-class mother who died when he was thirteen, he began studying at the University of Uppsala in 1867. He left shortly afterwards, however, to try his hand at various jobs, including acting. In 1870, his first plays were performed at the Royal Theatre. Strindberg’s intellectual and aesthetic universe was shaped by the writing and ideas of Kierkegaard, Rousseau, Shakespeare and Goethe, while he corresponded with Nietzsche about his own philosophical reflections. Ideologically, he espoused socialism as a goal to work towards, but his eventful and tumultuous personal life and his relationships with women led to accusations of misogyny. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, and more than seventy theatrical pieces, in which he experimented with naturalism and expressionism. An important stage in his career was the founding of the Intima Teatern in 1907 in Stockholm, with the actor and director August Falck. In this new theatre, in contrast to the spirit of the age, the whole was more important than any one part. Everyone and everything, including sets, costumes, lighting and music, served the author’s vision. Strindberg’s deeply subjective dramas reshaped European theatre in the twentieth century and influenced later writers such as Eugene O'Neill, Ionesco, Becket, Pinter and Tennessee Williams.

 

A short list of his plays:
The father [Fadren], Miss Julie [Fröken Julie], Creditors [Fordringsägare], The road to Damascus [Till Damaskus], A dream play [Ett drömspel], The ghost sonata [Spöksonaten],The pelican [Pelikanen].

 

Love is to us a play, and we play at it when our work leaves us time to do so. But we have not the time to do so all day and all night, as you have. I believe you are sick—I am sure you are sick. (Miss Julie)

 

But perhaps you want even more—to have power over the child, but still have me to support you. What has this whole life and death struggle been for but power? (The Father)