Although it dates from the same year as Miss Julie in 1888, Strindberg’s Creditors is less well known and far less performed. And yet it feels so much more mysteriously modern a play, and in David Greig’s new ninety-minute version – which sounds like a jauntier version of Michael Meyer’s standard translation – the shock value is renewed and new minted.
The perfect chamber play, Creditors fulfilled Strindberg’s requirement for his own Intimate Theatre with the blistering intensity of its study in consuming passion. Gustav (Owen Teale), a philosopher scientist, tells the artist Adolph (Tom Burke) that he must abandon his wife, the novelist Tekla (Anna Chancellor). We realise that Gustav was formerly married to Tekla himself and cannot move on without laying waste around him. His tactics of psychological terrorism are deeply disturbing.
Schematically conceived in three riveting scenes, Alan Rickman’s white hot production never slackens its grip for a minute. Teale opens his campaign by slowly winding up the shutters on Ben Stones’s scrubbed, bleached hotel room, and poor old Adolph is a goner. He is crippled from an accident. His sculpture of a reclining nude (a frank representation of Tekla) is a symptom of being too much in love, and a cause of his epilepsy.
When Tekla arrives – beautifully attired in grey and aquamarine silk, a vision of predatory elegance – she becomes an everywoman figure of sexual insatiability. Chancellor reins in this extreme, representative aspect of the character within a performance of stunning sensuality, racing towards the final jealousy-fuelled bonfire of their amities. Strindberg’s image for the two men is that of a wolf stalking a helpless lamb. Here, Tekla is the vixen and the vulture all at once.
Teale plays with a controlled iciness that releases the character’s warped ferocity with frightening savagery, while Burke’s poor Adolph writhes and moans in a beautifully varied account of his own emotional dependency and helplessness. The play is a puzzle to some extent, with Gustav a psychic voyager of no fixed abode, and Strindberg’s Pirandellian touch of two passing ladies with their luggage is sadly cut (presumably for economic reasons); it should not have been.
Overall, though, this is yet another Donmar triumph; the phrase is over-worn but unavoidable. For two nights running Fotini Dimou has provided wonderful costumes for a play with an earring in it, and the lights and sound of Howard Harrison and Adam Cork are works of art in themselves.
-Michael Coveney
Reader Reviews
Score
Comment
Date
It stunk... - Bobby Sue
01 Dec 08
Somehow this reminded me of Les Liasons Dangereus, for which its director is so famous - cynical, manipulative, highly stylised design (with pointless water surround), icey-cold mannered acting....but the play is rather distasteful and you can't really empathise with anyone. At the end I thought 'thank goodness they've gone'..... - Gareth James
11 Nov 08
As I left the Donmar the heavy rain came as a welcome relief to wash away the grime I felt from Strindberg's relentless cynicism. 90 minutes of intolerable cruelty and manipulation between a wife, her young husband and former husband made for a gruelling experience. Given his regular screen persona it's a relief that Alan Rickman did not cast himself as the tyrant Gustav, but he does direct three white hot performances from Owen Teale, Tom Burke and Anna Chancellor, who looked physically and emotionally shattered at the end. Very impressive but it would be hard to describe such a jaundiced view of marriage and relationships as enjoyable. Finally, what on earth was the most for? - David Baxter
06 Nov 08
I can sympathise with joesmith - last night being Hallowe'en, we were treated to a long burst of Michael Jackon's Thriller from the Bunker next door, during the closing scene...
As for the play itself, I'm afraid it rattled by at such a pace, and with such a measured, rythmic delivery, that much of it was lost on me - as I imagine it would be for most people unfamiliar with the text. The blocking was also inconsiderate, given the Donmar is played on 3 sides. On at least 5 occasions I was presented with nothing to look at but the back of one actors head, whilst his or her body completely obscured whoever else was onstage. And I don't mean for a moment - I mean for the duration of a lengthy speech.
The performances were worthy, the design beautiful (as it usually is at the Donmar) but I fear the story was not told with any regard for the audience. And thus, the primary purpose of theatre was ignored. - Thomas
01 Nov 08
Having seen the play twice, I have no idea what reviewer joesmith is going on about. He is obviously getting his plays mixed up for the direction of Creditors, as well as the acting, is superb -- it's subtle, understated and fiercely intelligent. I cannot praise this production high enough. Theatregoers capable of appreciating masterful, non-flashy, highly-nuanced direction and layered, powerful performances will leave the Donmar deeply satisfied and impressed. 5 stars.
- tagore
02 Oct 08
Listless direction of a limp, bloodless adaptation of a masterpiece. The performances are superb and the set a hoot. One audience member actually fell into the moat around the stage and more are bound to follow. Even worse was the loud rock music from the pub in the basement which ruined the last fifteen minutes. What's the Donmar coming to? - joesmith
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