- World Premiere of a new translation
Directed/Translator: Robert Greer
|
From August 25 to September 2, Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival will present the world premiere of a new translation by Robert Greer of August Strindberg's "The Father," directed by Mr. Greer and performed by an ensemble of actors from August Strindberg Rep, who developed the piece in a workshop production last November at Gene Frankel Theatre.
In this 1887 drama, a husband and wife struggle over who will control their daughter, with tragic consequences. Adolph is an army captain, a scientist and a "free thinker." He would have his daughter educated to be a teacher, while his wife, Laura, would have her become a painter. Adolph insists that the law supports him because a woman sells her rights when she agrees to be married. Laura responds with cunning and manipulation, casting doubts as to whether Adolph is actually the father of the girl and manipulating him into the irrational act of throwing a lamp at her. She also manipulates the town Pastor (who happens to be her stepbrother) and the newly arrived town Doctor for her purposes, using her erotic influence over the doctor and her readiness to claim that the family lawyer is her child's father to unseat her husband's presence of mind. This drives him into the arms of his old trusted nurse, who straitjackets him.
A previous rendition of this translation was presented last November by August Strindberg Rep in rotation with an evening of three plays by Natalie Menna on the subjects of narcissism and authority in relationships. It was the aftermath of the Kavanaugh hearings and it was hoped that the two productions could reflect some of the sexual politics of our time and enlighten audiences on how we can have the venomous rise of Trumpism now.
|
Johnson Theater
Showtimes:
Sunday - August 25 - 8pm
Tuesday - August 27 - 9pm
Wednesday - August 28 - 6:30pm
Saturday - August 31 - 5pm
Sunday - September 1 - 2pm
Monday - September 2 - 9pm
Running time: The Father is 1 Hour 40 Minutes $18.
|
|
|
Robert Greer (director, translator) is founding director of August
Strindberg Rep, for which he has directed eleven Strindberg plays
to-date. He has staged English-language premières of numerous
contemporary Scandinavian playwrights, including Sweden's Marianne
Goldman, Helena Sigander, Cecilia Sidenbladh, Oravsky and Larsen, Hans
Hederberg, Margareta Garpe and Kristina Lugn; Denmark's Stig Dalager
and Norway's Edvard Rønning. He has also directed classics by Victoria
Benedictsson, Laura Kieler, Anne Charlotte Leffler and Amalie Skram.
His productions have been presented at the Strindberg Museum and
Strindberg Festival, Stockholm; Edinburgh and NY Fringe Festivals,
Barnard College, Columbia University, Rutgers, UCLA; Miranda, Pulse
and Theater Row Theaters, La MaMa, Manhattan Theatre Source, Tribeca
Lab, Synchronicity, TSI, BargeMusic; and The Duplex in LA. He has also
directed plays by Mario Fratti, Sartre and Corneille here in New York.
He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society,
Actors' Equity; the Strindberg Society, the Society for the
Advancement of Scandinavian Study and Swedish Translators in North
America.
|
|