Strindberg's the Father and the Ghost Sonata.

I read a volume  of Strindberg's plays that had two plays that Beatrix  acted in. She appeared in the Father in 1953 and in a television version of the Ghost Sonata in 1962. This book had a very good introduction to the life of the playwright which I appreciated as I knew nothing of his background or the reception of his works. I found the plays themselves a bit difficult. The Father was interesting in what it said about gender roles, though I found I disagreed with a lot of it. It seemed that the character of the Captain's wife was the author's own paranoid delusions of women brought to life. He suspected his wife of hiding things from him, plotting against him, and attempting to drive him mad, which were all things the character actually did in the play. While she was formidable, she was also only portrayed as being as he imagined her to be. There could be no real sympathy for either character.

I saw a production of the Father this week at Trafalgar Studios. It was supposed to be a "new" version, however, when I saw it I was surprised how close to the Max Faber translation it was. There were a few lines cut and things changed but all in all it was still very close to the original. (With the insertion of an act of physical seduction which really didn't seem to make much sense). The woman playing the wife in this version was about 25 years younger than Bea was when she played it. Bea was just 50 and this woman appeared to be in her mid to late 20s. She played the wife as rather unsure of herself, and a seductress, whereas the reviews of Beatrix as the wife described her as a "terrifying figure of a woman" with "immeasurable malice".  Rather than hesitating and wringing her hands as did the younger actress I imagine Bea being very cold and calculating in her efforts to destroy her husband.




However, I did find the Father a much stronger play than the Ghost Sonata. Having seen a picture of Beatrix as the Mummy I was expecting her to have a bigger part, but she only had a few interesting lines in one scene and that was really it. The whole thing felt kinda whimsical and pointless.

Beatrix also appeared in a radio version of his play, The dance of death, which I've not read. It would be interesting to know what attracted her to the works of this author and how she regarded his approach to the problems of gender, especially as a woman who was both childless and bisexual.