Inferno (play)

Inferno
"Sackgasse, pour Inferno de Strindberg vers 1919" by René Beeh
Written by	Thomas Bywater
Characters	August Strindberg Felicity Strindberg Emma Strindberg Oskar Sorenson Ingmar Sorenson Mephisto Calypso
Date premiered	25 October 2013 (2013-10-25)
Place premiered	Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen
Original language	English
Setting	Paris, 1894

Inferno is a play based on the life of the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It was written by Thomas Bywater and first produced in Aberdeen's Tivoli Theatre^[1] on the 25th October 2013, as the first performance to reopen the theatre after 47 years of disuse.

Based around the events of Strindberg’s novel of the same name, it explores many of the Swedish playwright's themes and major works ( The Father, 1887, and Miss Julie, 1888,) through the events of his Inferno crisis of 1894-96.^[2]

The period begins with Strindberg’s inexplicable abandonment of his family for Paris and his attempts to create gold from base materials. Inferno takes the events - as described in the novel - as a premise to bring together contradictory elements of his character, as a playwright, polymath, painter, and alchemist.

Plot

Act 1

Mme Felicity Strindberg contacts private investigators, the brothers Oskar and Ingmar Sorenson. She commissions them to find her husband (August Strindberg) who has left his family and work in order to practice alchemy in Paris. She does not find this credible and assumes there is another reason. Following this, their daughter (Emma) has also gone missing from her School. Mme Strindberg assumes the two incidents must be connected and conspires to discredit her husband and gain custody over their daughter.

In Paris, Strindberg has is driven to torment by his work. He has become an outcast and his obsession with alchemy has made him a public joke. He explains his situation to a painter (Mephisto) who claims he has recently been made destitute. In exchange for his company, Strindberg gives Mephisto shelter in his room at the hotel.

Meanwhile, Strindberg's daughter, Emma, has arrived in Paris looking for her father. Her mission is to reunite her parents.

In Stindberg's hotel room it becomes increasingly obvious that Mephisto is not as poor as he pretends. The painter has set up his studio and continues to work from the room. Mephisto reveals he has a formula for producing cheap, imitation gold, which he sells on to his patrons at full price in gilded objects. Before long Strindberg begins to suspect the painter of being a conman. He ejects the painter from his room when he receives an large, unpayable bill from the hotel. Mephisto has been going out into the nearby cafes and bars and charging lavish meals and drink, to his room credit. Bankrupt, Strindberg heads out into the streets of Paris.

In the streets, where his daughter has been living as an urchin, Strindberg encounters one of the painter's models, Calypso. Recognising her from his room, Strindberg explains his situation. She invites him to stay with her. Emma, deciding this would be problematic for her mission, tries to remind her father of his life at home without being seen. She scrawls a message on a nearby wall. The message is misunderstood by her father. In his confused state, the scribble reminds him of his alchemical equations. Reminded by this and Mephisto's trick for counterfeit gold, his determination to succeed as an alchemist returns.

He is taken in by Calypso, while Emma must rethink her strategy to bring her father home to Sweden.

Act 2

In Calypso's chambers, Strindberg returns to his efforts for making gold.

Looking through his post from the hotel, he comes across a letter from his wife.

In the letter his wife explains that, if she cannot claim custody over their child's education, she will dispute his claim as the father. This deeply unsettles Strindberg. He asks Calypso for her advice. However, she is preoccupied with the her own debts to the landlord (Popofsky) who is a menacing force over the tenement block.

Meanwhile, the Sorenson's missed catching Strindberg. Recognising Mephisto from the hotel they pursue him as a lead in their search. They threaten him with exposure as a con-artist if he does not cooperate. He explains that Strindberg has begun living with one of his models (Calypso), which is the evidence the investigators need to defame Strindberg. Calypso also warns them of Calypso's landlord, who is a notorious gangster, and indicates Strindberg may be in trouble.

In Calypso's apartment, Strindberg has resumed his alchemy. It is made clear that Calypso has used Strindberg to provoke Popofsky, her paramour. The apartment is no longer a safe place for Strindberg to stay. He decamps to an abandoned house across the road, which the locals refer to as "la Sorcièlloire".

The investigators, finally catching up with Strindberg, arrive at the abandoned house. In the ruins of la Sorcièlloire, Strindberg is cornered. They are made aware that they are not alone in this reputedly haunted house. Emma Strindberg descends on her father and the Sorenson's scaring them witless. Reunited with his daughter, Strindberg agrees to come home to Sweden with the Sorenson brothers.

At home, August and Felicity overcome their misgivings and reach an agreement regarding their daughter's education. Strindberg is happy, for now, to return to family life and his work as a playwright.

Characters

While the characters featured in Inferno are not historically accurate, many of the roles are founded on the people and events in Strindberg's autobiographical accounts.

In the play his wife, Felicty, and daughter, Emma, are based on members of his family though the names are changed. Felicity Strindberg is a combination of his first wife,Siri von Essen , and Strindberg's second wife,Frida Uhl, to whom he was married at the time of his "Inferno" episodes. The character of Emma Strindberg is based upon aspects of own daughters (Karin, Greta and Kerstin) whilst bringing in plot elements from Strindberg's play The Father.

Edvard Munch Portrait of August Strindberg, 1892, Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden

The character of Mephiso is based in the playwright's friendship with the fin-de-siècle painters in Paris, including Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch.^[3]

Calypso has her basis in Dagny Juel, a Norwegian model and writer who was romantically connected to both Strindberg and Munch.^[4]

Original cast ^[5]

References

• http://www.stationhousebooks.co.uk/INFERNO%20review%20EE%2026-10-13.pdf
• http://www.stationhousebooks.co.uk/EE.July.13.pdf