Eszter Szalczer

Lördag (Saturday), 14:20–14:50, H135b

Affiliering (affiliation): University at Albany, State University of New York 

Abstract

“A castle through the dark glass of growing”

A Dream Play opens with a vision of a castle that keeps growing out of the earth, crowned with a flower bud, sending down roots into manure, and even sprouting new wings. It is a vision of an organism, a source of continuous growth and expansion, but seen through layers of secrets, obscurity and blindness. After taking in this vision from the outside, we enter the castle and move through its spaces where miniature capsules of human existence unfurl. The play concludes with another vision: the flower bud on the top opens while the flames of the burning castle illuminate a wall of questioning, grieving, despairing human faces. This paper will explore what happens between these two points of the text of A Dream Play, what is the nature of Strindberg’s text, and how it constructs itself through processes of expansion and limitation.

Om (about): 

Eszter Szalczer is Professor of Theatre History at the University at Albany, State University of New York and the author of August Strindberg (Routledge, 2011) and Writing Daughters: August Strindberg’s Other Voices (Norvik Press, 2008). Recent publications include:

“Beyond Change: Archaeology of a Spook Play” (with Tamas Szalczer), in Scenography and Art History: Performance Design and Visual Culture (ed. Astrid Von Rosen, Viveka Kjellmer, Bloomsbury, 2021). “Scenographic Dialogues: Staging Carl Grabow’s 1907 Designs for A Dream Play, Parts 1 and 2, (with Astrid von Rosen), Dokumenterat 51(2019), 52 (2022). 

https://carkiv.musikverk.se/www/epublikationer/Dokumenterat_52_2022.pdf

https://carkiv.musikverk.se/www/epublikationer/Dokumenterat_51_2019.pdf

“August Strindberg’s Exilic Modernity” in A Companion to World Literature, vol. 5. (John Wiley & Sons, 2020).