August Strindberg
Miss Julie — the father of modern Swedish drama
Sweden's greatest writer and one of the founders of modern theatre. Strindberg's ferocious psychological dramas — Miss Julie, The Father — pushed naturalism to its breaking point, dissecting class and the war between the sexes with unprecedented intensity. His later visionary works, A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata, abandoned realism altogether and anticipated Expressionism and the Theatre of the Absurd. A turbulent painter and alchemist as well, he remade drama for the twentieth century.
Key works
- Miss Julie1888— A naturalist tragedy of class and desire in a single nightPlay
- A Dream Play1902— Dreamlike, plotless — a forerunner of ExpressionismPlay
- The Ghost Sonata1907— A chamber play of decay and illusionPlay