Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata

270 Pages·2002·5.776 MB·English

by  Egil Tornqvist

Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata

Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata
From Text to Performance
Egil Tornqvlst
Amsterdam University Press
Cover illustration: Elin Kiinga ,1Sthe Young Lady and [onas Mnlmsjo as the
Student 111 Ingmar Bcrgmau's :2.000 production of The Ghost Sonata at
Dramaten In Stockholm. Photo: Bengr \X/anselius.
Cover design: Kok Korpcrshock IKOI, Amsterdam
Lay-out: JAPES, Amsterdam
NUGI925
ISBN 90 53.'i6 4.'157 (paperback)
ISBN 905356454.' (hardcover)
iDAmsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2000
All rights reserved. \Xfithout limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above, no partof this hook may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, to any form or byany means (electronic, me
chanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the written permis
sron of both the copyright owner and the author of this hook.
Table of contents
Preface 7
Prologue 9
One: Source text 17
1\'1'0: Target texts 53
Three: Stage productions 105
Four: Adaptations ]47
Epilogue 165
Appendix 1:Configurationchartof Strindberg'sdramatext 17[
Appendix2:Configuration chartof Bergman's [973 production 173
Appendix 3:Shortrehearsaldiaryof lngmarBergman's 1973 production 177
Appendix4:Transcription of Bergman's 197.3 production
Selectannotated list of productions
229
Notes
Cited works
LIst of illustrations
Index

Preface
Some thirty years ago Ifollowed the rehearsals of Ingmar Bergrnan's produc
tion of The GhostSonata attheRoyal DramaticTheatre (Dramaten) InStock
holm. This resulted the following year in a book in Swedish.
The present book, though partly based on the former one, has a broader
scope. Its mainpurpose istoilluminatethe Srrindbergian sourcetextbothas a
text for the reader and as an embedded text for the spectator, that is,as a text
- whether In source or target form - transposed to and received via audio
Visual or aural media: stage, screen, air.
The book isdividedintofour chapters.The first ISdevoted toan analysisof
the source text, the second to various translation problems related to English
and American renderings of the play, the third ro some significant stage pro
ductions, and the fourth to some adaptations of it for radio and television.
Special attention isgiven toIngmac Bergrnan's highlysuccessful 1973 produc
tion. The four chapters are framed by a Prologue and an Epilogue. In the for
mer, I elucidate the biographical and literary background. In the latter, I
discuss the impact of the play, both as a text and as a production, on drama
tists and directors. Four appendices provide detailed Information about the
drama text and about Bcrgman's [973 production, a complete transcription
of which isfound inthe lastappendix. At the end of the book, thereisa select,
annotated list of productions, intended to supplement the discussion in chap
ters Three and Four and to stimulate further research.
Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from non-English sources, in
cluding Strindberg's source text, are in my own rendering, although I natu
rally owe much to existing translations of Spohsonaten, the Swedish title of
the play that concerns us.
Iuse the past tensefor non-duracivemodes(stage) andthepresenttense for
durativc (repeatable) modes (text, screen, air). The existence of a taped, i.e.
durativcrecordingofa stagepresentationcannotchangethefundamental fact
that such a recording can never correspond completely to the intended live
performance, the non-repeatable theatrical event.
'Recipient' isused as an umbrellaterm for the reader, the spectator and the
listener.
The typography of drama texts varies somewhat. Since such variation
seems rather irrelevant, Ihavedeemed it desirable to standardizethetypogra
phy as follows: for stage and acting directions, I use italics throughout. The
same principle IS applied In my transcriptions of performance passages.
Speaker-labels are put In low-case capitals and printed in roman.
8 _ ____ _ S~~ndberg:\T~<:;holtSon~a_
Titlesof non-English worksare usuallygiven inEnglish translation.The origi
nal tides are added in the index. The following abbreviations are used:
SS SamtadeSkrifter(/uAUI;IIstStrilldherg, cd.John Lmdquisr, StOl.:kholm;
Bonniers, 1912-1921,
sv AugustStrindhergs Samlade Vcrk, chiefed. Lars Dahlback,Srockholm.
Almqvist & Wikselll Norsrcdrs, 1')g1-
The figures following the abbreviations indicate volume and page{s).
Three dots within quotations indicate either a pause or an interrupted
speech. Omissions within quotations are indicated bya hyphen within square
brackets: (-I.
ln the transcription of stage and TV presentations, the following abbrevia
tions arc used:
He; Background
FG Foreground
L l.efr
R Right
Asubstantial part of this book has appeared earlierIn the following publica
tions: "Ingmar Bergman Directs Strindberg's Ghost SOl1ata," Theatre Quar
terly, Vol. Ill, No. IT,july-Sep., 1973; Bergmal1och Strindberg: Spoksonarcn
- drama och iscensattning. Dramaten 1973, Stockholm: Prisma, 197.);
Strindbergian Drama: ThemesandStructure, Stockholm: Almqvisr & Wiksell
International f Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press Inc., 19H2;Trans
posingDrama: Studiesin Representation,London: Macmiilan, 199I;and Be
tween Stage and Screen: lngmar Bergnuni Directs, Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press, 1995. All articles/chapters have been thoroughly revised for
this book.
For their helpful asstsrance I wish to thank the respective staff of the
Strindberg Museum, the Srrindberg archive of the Royal Library, the Royal
Dramatic Theatre, the Drottningholm Theatre Museum, the National Ar
chive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images, and the Photographic Archive
of the Swedish Television, all In Stockholm, as well as Thearerinstiruut
Ncdertand in Amsterdam.
The illustrations have been made possible thanks to agenerousgrant from
the Swedish Institute in Stockholm.
Prologue
An Importantevent in theatre history occurred III lateautumn 1906when the
young actor and theatre manager August Falck met the elderly writer August
Strindberg. It was then that the idea of founding an intimate theatre in Stock
holm, solely devotedto Strindberg's plays, arose. Ayear laterthe idea had be
come reality.
Strindberg had several times earliertriedto set up a theatre of hisown, no
tably In r888 when he founded his sbortlivcd Scandinavian Experimental
TheatreIn Copenhagen. Now, after the emergence of intimate stages in Paris
(Antoine), Berlin (Brahm), and London (Grem), and encouraged by Falck's
successful tour with Miss ]ulie, the situation seemed more favourable. Pre
cisely in 1906 Max Rcinhardr, influenced by the Preface of Miss fulie, had
opened his Kanunerspiel-Haus in Berlin.
Inspired bythe new theatre plans, Strindbergquickly wrote his four dum
ber plays, each of them characterized, as he puts it, by
the intimate inform, a restricted subject, treated In depth, fewcharacters, large points
ofView,free imagination, but based on observation,experience,carefullystudied;sim
ple, butnottoo simple;nogreatapparatus,no superfluousminorroles,no regularfive"
nctcrs or "old machines," no long-drawn-ourwhole evenings.'
According to his Occult Diary, the first chamber play, Thunder in the Air,
was finished already on 25January. By6 March, Strindberg was at work on
the second one, The Burned Site. And two days later, The Ghost Sonata or
"TheGhostSupper" as itwas then alternativelycalledwas completed. Appar
ently the last two were written very quickly and more or lesssimultaneously.
Falck informs us:
I was allowed to sit in the room outside and steal inon my toes to fetch a few manu
script pages. He wrote with whizzing speed, pulled away the completed pages and
threw them unhlotred on the floor, where Icollected them,carried them away and sat
down to read them. I-IAfter dinner, he 'loaded' himself, you actually saw how his
thoughts were working; above the eyes appeared what looked like thick calluses, and
the forehead and the templesseemedtogrow,enlargefrom the strainoffindingconcise
expressions. Shortnotes,difficulttograsp,were strownaroundhim on the table,inthe
drawers, in hispockets. Thechamber plays arose like a jigsaw puzzle from these frag
ments.'