The Ghost Sonata is a play in three acts by Swedish playwright August Strindberg

August Strindberg

Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...

. Written in 1907, it was first produced at Strindberg's Intimate Theatre in Stockholm on January 21, 1908. Since then, it has been staged by such notable directors as Max Reinhardt

Max Reinhardt

----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...

, Olof Molander

Olof Molander

Olof Molander was a great and influential Swedish theatre- and film director, most notable for his many Strindberg and Shakespeare productions....

, Roger Blin

Roger Blin

Roger Blin was a French actor and director notable for directing the first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot....

, and Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

. Bergman directed it four times: in 1941, 1954, 1973, and 2000. Strindberg took the title from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor

Piano Sonata No. 17 (Beethoven)

The Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was composed in 1801/02 by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is usually referred to as "The Tempest" , but this title was not given by him, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime; instead, it comes from a claim by his associate Anton Schindler...

, which he called `The Gespenster Sonata', and also Piano Trio No. 4 in D major

Piano Trio No. 4 (Beethoven)

The Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1797 and published in Vienna the next year. It is one of a series of early chamber works, many involving woodwind instruments because of their popularity and novelty at the time. The trio is scored for piano, clarinet ,...

, known as the `Ghost Trio'.

The Ghost Sonata is a key text in the development of modernist drama and a vivid example of a chamber play

Chamber play

A chamber play is play of usually three acts which can be performed with a small cast and practically no sets or costumes in a small space. The form became popular in the early 20th century, with leading exponents being Max Reinhardt and August Strindberg., first it was adapted to cinema in 1920s,...

. In it, Strindberg creates a world in which ghosts walk in bright daylight, a beautiful woman is transformed into a mummy and lives in the closet, and the household cook sucks all the nourishment out of the food before she serves it to her masters.

The play relates the adventures of a young student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jacob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal and sickness. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation.

The Ghost Sonata centers on a family of strangers who meet for the sake of meeting. They exchange no dialogue, nor gestures, they simply sit and bask in their own misfortune. To Strindberg, family was something that he could never understand or even be a functioning part of: “Family... the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children” (Strindberg's “Inferno”). As a child, Strindberg went through the very hell he alludes to about the family. As an adult he realized that he would rather have died than lived a childhood hell and an adult hell, thus spawning a mania fixating on death.

Characters

• The Old Man, Jacob Hummel
• The Student, Arkenholz
• The Milkmaid, An apparition
• The Superintendent's wife
• The Superintendent
• The Dead Man, a Consul
• The Lady in Black, Daughter of the Dead Man and the Superintendent's wife.
• The Colonel
• The Mummy, the Colonel's wife
• The Young Lady, the Colonel's daughter, but actually the Old Man's daughter
• Johansson, Hummel's servant
• Bengtsson, The Colonel's footman
• The Fiancée, a white-haired woman, formerly engaged to Hummel
• The Cook
• Beggars

Noteworthy performances

• In April 2008, Open Circle Theater
  Open Circle Theater
  Open Circle Theater was a multi-disciplinary performance company in Seattle, Washington.It was committed to the development of new works and adaptations that spoke to the human condition through fantasy and mythic storytelling...
  
   celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first production by producing The Ghost Sonata at All Pilgrims Church in Seattle.