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April 22, 2010

In the world of August Strindberg, where everyone is always armed and dangerous, it takes only 90 minutes to destroy a marriage. That’s the time required to perform the thrilling new interpretation of “Creditors,” which opened Tuesday night at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. When this impeccably acted three-character drama has put the last of those minutes to cruel and careful use, you’re likely to feel you’ve had the breath knocked out of you. Despite yourself, you’ll probably be smiling too.

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April 23, 2010

David Grieg’s spare and savage re-do of "Creditors," Strindberg’s nasty-tempered revenge drama about an abandoned husband who gets back at his faithless wife by driving her new husband crazy, came out of Michael Grandage’s Donmar Warehouse, the same London hit factory that produced such recent stunners as "Red," "Mary Stuart," "Frost/Nixon," and the Jude Law "Hamlet." But even in this snappy production, stringently directed by Alan Rickman, this 1889 Swedish hand-me-down lacks that critical element of instant identification that would make a modern audience want to clutch this show to its heart.

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David
Sheward

April 23, 2010

"It seemed to me to be less of a play and more an almost demonic experiment on a set of three human lab rats" is how playwright David Greig describes August Strindberg’s rarely performed "Creditors," of which he wrote a new adaptation, currently playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music after a hit run in London. This Donmar Warehouse production, directed with muscular control by Alan Rickman, takes up that clinical theme with Ben Stones’ stark, antiseptic set and Fotini Dimou’s muted costumes. It’s almost like a really intense class in the use of emotion-controlling spells, conducted by Professor Snape, Rickman’s coolly snide wizard from the Harry Potter movies.

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April 23, 2010

Good-natured bonhomie devolves into rancor, bitterness, and sadness in August Strindberg’s Creditors, playing at BAM’s Harvey Theatre. Directed with precision by Alan Rickman who uses an eminently colloquial and performable new version by David Greig, the production consistently intrigues from start to finish (in 90 minutes) as the truths behind the relationships between a trio of characters, and the intellectual and emotional debts they owe one another, are brought into sharp and painful focus.

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April 23, 2010

The poster for "Creditors" has Alan Rickman’s name in big letters. But you won’t find Rickman, that suave screen villain, on stage: The actor directed this relatively rare August Strindberg play, brought to BAM from London’s Donmar Warehouse.

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