Creditors

Starring Michael Lawrence, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Keith Adams
By August Strindberg; adaptation by Michael Meyer

In a hotel room by the sea, two men speak with a candour that is only possible between strangers. The older man, Gustav, suggests the young man, Adolph's, difficulties - physical (he walks with a stick), mental (prone to outbursts and weeping), and vocational (he suffers a bad case of artist’s block) - might be attributable to his being dominated by his wife, Tekla. Adolf agrees to Gustav’s plan to test Tekla’s integrity. But is Gustav as ethical as he appears?

On Tekla’s return, the truth is exposed - with devastating consequences.

In the age of soaps, we are well used to the feverish hothouse of post-Freudian relationships. What is fascinating about Creditors (written 1888) is how modern Strindberg is, particularly in his depiction of a woman who is as explicit in her sexuality and her opinions as any man. This might appear unremarkable today, but a recent Home Office survey (reported in The Times, March 9, 2009) reveals that 1 in 7 people still think that it is O.K. for a man to hit his wife or partner if she flirts with another man, or dresses "inappropriately." Oh, brave new world!

Of Creditors Germaine Greer has written, "In the paradigm of coupledom there can be no arbitrator, no censor, only the eyeball to eyeball confrontation of two people who, though they speak the same language, experience the world in entirely different ways. The characters don’t argue; they use words like clubs. Nobody wins; everybody loses."

From Ford Transit Productions. Designer: John Parker; Lighting: Nik Janiurek