Plays by August Strindberg: Creditors. Pariah.

"Plays by August Strindberg: Creditors. Pariah." by August Strindberg is a collection of two plays written during the late 19th century (the late 1880s). The collection features "Creditors," a tragicomedy dissecting the complexities of marriage and personal relationships through the lens of its characters, particularly focusing on the tensions between Tekla, her husband Adolph, and her former spouse Gustav. The intricate dynamics between the characters explore themes of jealousy, power, and the emotional debts that couples incur throughout their lives together. The opening of "Creditors" introduces us to Adolph, a painter, and Gustav, Tekla's divorced husband, who are engaged in a revelatory conversation within a coastal summer hotel. Adolph, recovering from a period of emotional turmoil, recounts his feelings of helplessness after Tekla's departure. Throughout their dialogue, Gustav subtly provokes Adolph, stirring doubts about Tekla's fidelity and the nature of their marriage. The scene creates a palpable dramatic tension as it leads Adolph to confront uncomfortable truths about his relationship with Tekla, setting the stage for the psychological explorations and conflicts that follow. This complex interplay marks the beginning of an emotional unraveling that casts doubt on the very foundation of Adolph's identity and self-worth, making for a gripping and thought-provoking start to the play. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, and politics during his career, which spanned four decades. A bold experimenter and iconoclast throughout his life, he explored a wide range of dramatic methods and purposes, from naturalistic tragedy, monodrama, and historical plays to his anticipations of expressionist and surrealist dramatic techniques. From his earliest work, Strindberg developed innovative forms of dramatic action, language, and visual composition. He is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature and his The Red Room (1879) has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel. In Sweden, Strindberg is known as an essayist, painter, poet, and especially novelist and playwright, but in other countries he is known mostly as a playwright.