Ghost Sonata / When We Dead Awaken Author:August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen, Thaddeus L. Torp (Translator) Together in this volume are two plays by the Scandinavian geniuses of modern drama, which focus on a single theme -- the reality of death. Translated and edited by Thaddeus L. Torp, this edition contains both August Strindberg's Ghost Sonata and Henrik Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken for performance and study and includes an introduction, a chronolo... more »gy of principal works and important events in the authors' lives, and a bibliography.
Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg
The Ghost Sonata is a key text in the development of modernist drama and a vivid example of a chamber play. In it, Strindberg creates a world in which ghosts walk in bright daylight, a beautiful woman is transformed into a mummy and lives in the closet, and the household cook sucks all the nourishment out of the food before she serves it to her masters.
The play relates the adventures of a young student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jacob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal, sickness and vampirism. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation
When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen
Arnold Rubek, a celebrated sculptor and his wife, Maia, find themselves tense and ill at ease while traveling. Maia finds herself drawn to Ulfheim, a brutal hunter who contrasts sharply with her cold, withdrawn husband. Rubek, for his part, encounters Irene, a beautiful woman from his past. Awakening memories, desires, and an acute existential crisis in Rubek, Irene leads him to a mountaintop. As they approach the summit, both are killed in an avalanche. From the valley below, we hear Maia singing exultantly.« less