The Dance of Death
3.5/5
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About this ebook
A visceral new version of Strindberg's compelling, bitingly funny battle of wills.
On an isolated island, military captain Edgar and his wife Alice live a bitter life, their marriage soured by hatred. When the possibility of redemption and escape arrives for Alice in the shape of their former comrade Kurt, it seems that Edgar is prepared to use his very last breath to make their lives a living hell.
Conor McPherson's version of The Dance of Death premiered at Trafalgar Studios, London in December 2012.
'it's impossible to look away' Time Out
'a grotesque comedy that anticipates the work of theatrical absurdists such as Beckett and Ionesco... a profoundly seminal work' Guardian
'shockingly funny... its raw savagery is thrilling and its bleak existential despair almost Beckettian' The Times
Conor McPherson
Conor McPherson is a playwright, screenwriter and director, born in Dublin in 1971. Plays include Rum and Vodka (Fly by Night Theatre Co., Dublin); The Good Thief (Dublin Theatre Festival; Stewart Parker Award); This Lime Tree Bower (Fly by Night Theatre Co. and Bush Theatre, London; Meyer-Whitworth Award); St Nicholas (Bush Theatre and Primary Stages, New York); The Weir (Royal Court, London, Duke of York's, West End and Walter Kerr Theatre, New York; Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics' Circle, George Devine Awards); Dublin Carol (Royal Court and Atlantic Theater, New York); Port Authority (Ambassadors Theatre, West End, Gate Theatre, Dublin and Atlantic Theater, New York); Shining City (Royal Court, Gate Theatre, Dublin and Manhattan Theatre Club, New York; Tony Award nomination for Best Play); The Seafarer (National Theatre, London, Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Booth Theater, New York; Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Tony Award nominations for Best Play); The Veil (National Theatre); The Night Alive (Donmar Warehouse, London and Atlantic Theater, New York); and Girl from the North Country (Old Vic, London). Theatre adaptations include Daphne du Maurier's The Birds (Gate Theatre, Dublin and Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis), August Strindberg's The Dance of Death (Donmar at Trafalgar Studios), Franz Xaver Kroetz's The Nest (Young Vic, London), Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (West End, 2020) and Paweł Pawlikowski's Cold War (Almeida Theatre, 2023). Work for the cinema includes I Went Down, Saltwater, Samuel Beckett's Endgame, The Actors, The Eclipse and Strangers. His work for television includes an adaptation of John Banville's Elegy for April for the BBC, and the original television drama Paula for BBC2. Awards for his screenwriting include three Best Screenplay Awards from the Irish Film and Television Academy; Spanish Cinema Writers Circle Best Screenplay Award; the CICAE Award for Best Film Berlin Film festival; Jury Prize San Sebastian Film Festival; and the Méliès d’Argent Award for Best European Film.
Read more from Conor Mc Pherson
The Weir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl from the North Country (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShining City (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGirl from the North Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl from the North Country (NHB Modern Plays): (2022 edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Birds (stage version) (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Night Alive (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5St Nicholas (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConor McPherson Plays: One (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Veil (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rum and Vodka (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dublin Carol (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Good Thief (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dance of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conor McPherson Plays: Two (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seafarer (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMcPherson Plays: Three Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCold War (NHB Modern Plays): (stage version) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Lime Tree Bower (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPort Authority (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Dance of Death
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Edgar and Alice, the married couple bound together by hate, love and guilt, staging their war before the necessary witness Kurt are a classic threesome in theatre, inspiring many successors. Martha and George and their young night guests are but one flagrant example. We’re planning a staging of part one of this play at my theatre, as a part of the hundred year anniversary of Strindberg’s death, and I needed to reread it. I took the opportunity to read the much more seldom staged second part, while I had the first part fresh. Like always, Strindberg writes a rather heavyhanded, almost crude, dialogue. His strength is in the passion and the misogyny, rather than in structure or finesse. This theme, being a vampire on someone else’s misery suits him fine. At times though, there are way too many exclamation points and pathetic outbursts for me, even taking the heightened style of the play into account.The volume I read, part of an annotated collected works, also has a comment section at the end. It’s the kind you need to be a fanatic or the writer’s mother to enjoy, full of endless accounts of early mentions of minor characters in Strindberg’s occult diary or how many minutes were cut in the Köln production 1905.