Strindberg's Marriage: Savage Tango or Tender Tragicomedy?

August Strindberg's "Dance of Death," a bleak portrayal of marital strife, has been reimagined by director Richard Eyre at the Orange Tree Theatre. Eyre's adaptation masterfully injects comedy and tenderness into the original savagery, turning a couple's mutual loathing into a darkly humorous and moving spectacle. The production is set during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, a choice that amplifies the sense of compulsory closeness and domestic disharmony, resonating with contemporary experiences.

The play's drawing-room setting, filled with faded grandeur, becomes the battleground for Captain Edgar, played by Will Keen, and his wife Alice, portrayed by Lisa Dillon. Keen and Dillon deliver astonishing performances, embodying a relationship of co-dependent hate, power games, and regret with remarkable spark and mischief. Their dynamic, though savage, is imbued with a captivating pathos, making the audience laugh at their antics while also feeling for their plight.

Beyond the marital conflict, Eyre's staging explores deeper existential themes. The intermittent glimpses of the sea suggest a world beyond the characters' claustrophobia, yet anxiety about isolation and the fear of a Godless universe and mortality pervades the drama. The play evolves into something far grander than a mere marital misery-fest, posing profound questions about life, death, and the human condition.