The Dance of Death E-Book

Conor McPherson

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A visceral new version of Strindberg's compelling, bitingly funny battle of wills. On an isolated island, military captain Edgar and his wife Alice live a bitter life, their marriage soured by hatred. When the possibility of redemption and escape arrives for Alice in the shape of their former comrade Kurt, it seems that Edgar is prepared to use his very last breath to make their lives a living hell. Conor McPherson's version of The Dance of Death premiered at Trafalgar Studios, London in December 2012. 'it's impossible to look away' Time Out 'a grotesque comedy that anticipates the work of theatrical absurdists such as Beckett and Ionesco... a profoundly seminal work' Guardian 'shockingly funny... its raw savagery is thrilling and its bleak existential despair almost Beckettian' The Times

Leseprobe

THE DANCEOF DEATH

August Strindberg

adapted by

Conor McPherson

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Characters and Setting

Act One

Act Two

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

This version of The Dance of Death was first performed at the Trafalgar Studios, London, as part of the Donmar Trafalgar season, on 13 December 2012. The cast was as follows:

KURT

Daniel Lapaine

THE CAPTAIN

Kevin R. McNally

ALICE

Indira Varma

Director

Titas Halder

Designer

Richard Kent

Lighting Designer

Richard Howell

Composer and Sound Designer

Alex Baranowski

Movement Director

Laïla Diallo

Characters

THE CAPTAIN, at a coastal artillery fortress, late fifties/sixties

ALICE, his wife, forties

KURT, newly appointed Master of Quarantine, forties

Setting

An island near a port in Sweden, 1900.

ACT ONE

The interior of a round fortress tower built of granite.

Upstage are a large pair of doors with glass windowpanes, through which can be seen the sky at dusk and a distant shoreline with some lights. To the side of each door is a window.

There is a dresser with some framed pictures and books; a piano; a table with some chairs; an armchair; a mounted mercurial barometer and a desk with a telegraph machine. There is also a kind of ‘bar’ –a high table against one wall – with glasses and bottles of liquor with a mirror above it. There are a few rugs, but the walls are bare granite and nothing can take away a feeling of foreboding – this building used to be a jailhouse. On one wall hangs a portrait of ALICE .