THEATRE REVIEW Bastards of Strindberg

One can imagine August Strindberg, founding father of Naturalism in the European theater, squirming in his century-old grave as Ingrid Kullberg-Bendz begins an evening of Miss Julie-inspired shorts addressing the audience as a matured iteration of Strindberg’s most talked about titular character: “I once told a friend about things I’d done one midsummer night many years ago. And he wrote a play about it. His play was considered ‘naturalistic.’ At least to anyone it wasn’t based on.” But maybe he’s not squirming. What is most successful about Bastards of Strindberg, the Scandinavian American Theater Company’s final production of it’s 5th anniversary season, is the way it embraces and extends the spirit of Strindberg’s work. In the preface to Miss Julie, Strindberg encourages intimacy and a move away from outdated formalism. The four plays featured in SATC’s production react to Strindberg’s work with a similar attitude. The evening of plays was commissioned by SATC in 2012, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Strindberg’s death, asking two American playwrights (David Bar Katz & Dominique Morisseau) and two Swedish playwrights (Lina Ekdahl & Andreas Boonstra) to write a short play responding to Miss Julie. Henning Hegland and Alicia Dhyana House’s direction connects the four pieces within the frame of the Midsummer Eve’s celebration, with varying degrees of success.