Strindberg's Wives

The Swedish dramatist August Strindberg had a complicated relationship with women. That comes across in the new adaptation of his play Creditors by Jen Silverman.

As I just saw Creditors this afternoon, now is a good time to go over Strindberg's rather tumultuous marital history and how it impacted his plays. It was in 1875 that he first met Siri von Essen, a married baroness who likely provided the model for Tekla in Creditors.

Von Essen had always wanted to be an actor, and in 1877 she began performing at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. That same year, she married Strindberg, having secured a divorce from her first husband only the year prior. She appeared in Strindberg's historical drama The Secret of the Guild, and after his turn toward Naturalism she originated the title role in Miss Julie.

Together, Strindberg and von Essen founded the Scandinavian Experimental Theatre which premiered his play The Stronger with her as Madame X. That play premiered together with Creditors and a third Strindberg one-act play, Pariah. Unfortunately, the theatre failed, as did their marriage. The author was plunged into a depression he later referred to as his Inferno Crisis. Strindberg ultimately abandoned both his atheism and his embrace of Naturalism.

Emerging from his Inferno Crisis, Strindberg met the 20-year-old Frida Uhl, whom he married the same year he wrote his comedy Playing with Fire. Uhl had lots of ideas about how to market his plays internationally, but Strindberg wasn't big on women having ideas of their own. To absolutely no one's surprise, the couple ended up divorcing. Uhl went on to become the lover of another playwright, Frank Wedekind, and a pioneer in cabaret performance.

After the hurricane of his relationship with Uhl, Strindberg turned back toward religion. This was reflected in his three-part play To Damascus, as well as the history plays he returned to writing with the Vasa trilogy: The Saga of the Folkungs, Gustavus Vasa, and Erik XIV. As he returned to productivity as a playwright, he also met a young actress, Harriet Bosse. He chose her to play the role of "The Lady" in To Damascus as well as Eleonora in Easter.

The two were married in 1901, and the following year, Bosse appeared as the Daughter of Indra in Strindberg's A Dream Play. His jealousy, which seems to have crossed over into insanity at times, doomed this marriage as well. They separated, and then divorced. Strindberg began writing a grand cycle of history plays based on world-changing figures like Socrates and Jesus, but he had greater artistic success with smaller works.

In 1907, Strindberg co-founded a new theatre in Stockholm to perform chamber plays, including The Ghost Sonata. Like pieces of chamber music, these dramas were smaller in scale but still ambitious artistically. The works were meant to be performed without intermissions and to an audience of no more than 160.

Even in the late chamber plays, you can still see the influence of the powerful women in Strindberg's life. It clearly wasn't easy being married to Strindberg, and the theatre owes a debt to the women who inspired him.