August Strindberg's "Dance of Death, Parts One and Two" at Theater for the New City

August Strindberg's "Dance of Death, Parts One and Two" will be performed in English onstage together for the very first time, newly translated and directed by Robert Greer, Artistic Director of August Strindberg Rep. Part One is set in an isolated fort where Edgar, a captain of a coastal artillery installation, and Alice, his wife, have lived for 20 years, hating each other with a deadly venom and each wishing the other's death. When Kurt, Edgar's cousin, comes to stay in it, he is caught up in the atmosphere of evil. He falls in love with Alice and becomes her associate in a plot designed to destroy her husband. Following a stroke, Edgar suddenly gains a new vision of life, realizing his own errors and pleading for reconciliation. Thus ends the first part of the drama.In Part Two, Edgar is revealed to be a villain: clever, devious and cunning. He has lured Kurt into a stock market scam, ruined Kurt's aspirations for election to parliament, snatched Kurt's household furnishings at bankruptcy prices, undermined the military career of Kurt's son, Allen, by getting him transferred to a remote base in the far North, and plotted to marry his own coquettish daughter, Judith, to his commanding officer to curry favor. Nevertheless, the second play ends in the final triumph of the wife. Edgar's health problems, which were established in Part One, are catching up with him. Remorselessly, Alice drives Edgar to his death--although in the very process of doing so, bitter doubt enters her mind. In a diabolical subplot, Judith tortures Allen, Kurt's son, for loving her. She is portrayed as a youthful vampire and there is the sense that this family's cycle of "love-hatred" will go on and on. The plays, written in 1900, are considered by some critics to be Strindberg's greatest work, although ironically, Part Two is rarely seen. Their legacy can be seen in a number of contemporary works. In "Play Strindberg," Friedrich Drrenmatt condensed the two parts into a terse, brutal series of boxing rounds. The claustrophobic atmosphere and treatment of marital dysfunction in Strindberg's masterpiece reverberate through Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," Harry Kondoleon's "The Houseguests" and even John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves."WHERE AND WHEN:February 25 to March 13, 2022Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave.Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 3:00 PM$18, $12 seniors and studentsBox Office (212) 254-1109, www.theaterforthenewcity.netRunning time: 2:10 plus intermissionCompany's website: https://strindbergrep.com/