When an old friend comes to visit the captain and his wife, he quickly turns from saviour to prey as they toss insults like grenades, trying to gain him as an ally in their marital battleground. Strindberg’s masterpiece revels in the black humour and incendiary jibes of two people locked in a deadly embrace. Only the children offer a chance to break the pattern of conflict that is their legacy. Predating Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by sixty years, The Dance of Death uses language as the most vicious weapon of all.
As their 25th wedding anniversary approaches, Alice and Edgar are locked in a bitter struggle. They”e driven away their children and their friends. Their relationship is sustained by taunts and recriminations. When a newcomer breaks into the midst of the fray, their insular lives threaten to spin out of control.