''The Ghost Sonata'' () is a play in three acts by the Swedish playwright

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...

. Written in 1907, it was first produced at Strindberg's Intimate Theatre in Stockholm on 21 January 1908. Since then, it has been staged by such notable directors as

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...

Olof Molander Olof Johan Harald Molander (8 October 1892 – 26 May 1966) was a Swedish theatre and film director. He was most notable for his many Strindberg and Shakespeare productions. Biography Molander was born in Helsinki. He was the son of the dir ...

Roger Blin Roger Blin (22 March 1907 – 21 January 1984) was a French actor and director. He staged world premieres of Samuel Beckett's ''Waiting for Godot'' in 1953 and ''Endgame'' in 1957. Biography Blin was the son of a doctor; however, despite his ...

, and

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...

. Bergman directed it four times: in 1941, 1954, 1973, and 2000. Strindberg took the title from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, which he called 'The Gespenster Sonata', and also Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, known as the 'Ghost Trio'. ''The Ghost Sonata'' is a key text in the development of

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

drama and a vivid example of a

chamber play A chamber play is a play of usually three acts which can be performed with a small cast and practically no sets or costumes in a small space. The form became popular in the early 20th century, with leading exponents being Max Reinhardt and August S ...

. 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.

Plot

''The Ghost Sonata'' 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 and sickness. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation. The play centers on a family of strangers who meet for the sake of meeting. They exchange no dialogue, nor gestures; they simply sit and bask in their own misfortune.

Characters

*The Old Man, Jacob Hummel *The Student, Mr. Arkenholz *The Milkmaid, An apparition *The Superintendent's wife *The Superintendent *The Dead Man, a Consul *The Lady in Black, Daughter of the Dead Man and the Superintendent's wife *The Colonel *The Mummy, the Colonel's wife *The Young Lady, the Colonel's daughter, but actually the Old Man's daughter *Johansson, Hummel's servant *Bengtsson, The Colonel's footman *The Fiancée, a white-haired woman, formerly engaged to Hummel *The Cook *Beggars *The Nobleman, engaged to the Lady in Black

References

* Törnqvist, Egil. ''Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata''. Amsterdam University Press, 2000. *Strindberg, August. '' Inferno'' and ''From an Occult Diary''. Translated by

Mary Sandbach Mary Warburton Sandbach (born Mary Warburton Matthews; 25 April 1901 – 3 November 1990) was a British translator. She is noted for her translations of the Swedish writer August Strindberg. Life Sandbach was born in Edgbaston in 1901. Her parent ...

. London: Penguin Books, 1979.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Sonata, The 1907 plays Plays by August Strindberg Plays set in Sweden Stockholm in fiction Expressionist plays Plays adapted into operas

Plot

Characters

See also

References

External links