Three Plays

The plays in this volume focus on the tumultuous relationships between men and women, whether they are father and daughter, brother and sister, or lovers. Miss Julia is a ruthlessly realistic depiction of an upper-class woman's seduction of a servant, emphasizing the differences and the antagonism between them. In The Father a mom is brought to madness and driven out of his home by the suspicion that his daughter is not his own child, while Easter centers on a family in need of redemption for its sins and suffering, and finding forgiveness at a season of rebirth. Strindberg's acute psychological analysis and his dramatization of naked emotion within a natrualistic domestic setting make him one of the great innovators of modern theater. Peter Watts's powerful translation is accompanied by an introduction and a preface to each of the dramas, which place the plays in the context of Strindberg's life.