Word: strindbergism
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...this short tragedy is not an unqualified statement of the intense misogyny of Strindberg's youth: the duality of his evaluation of women, which led him alternatively from violent, Nietszchean disgust of females to a submissive craving for maternal warmth and comfort, receives a bit of the attention it will enjoy more fully in later plays. The Strindberg hatred for the feminist opportunist pervades The Link, but an appreciation of the woman as mother is not totally absent...
...this play at the Experimental Theatre, therefore, was in stark contrast to a more amiable view of the battle of the sexes being portrayed on the Main Stage. Shaw could smile resignedly at the tenacity with which woman fulfilled her duty to the Life Force and captured a husband. Strindberg brooded over the plague of women besetting man, and saw tragic disaster in the marriage woman sought. In both plays though, there is a great deal of talk...
...trouble is that many of the supporting roles are extremely important; their weakness in the Experimental's production stifled the power of Strindberg's script and often led to tedium. Particularly at fault was Skip Ascheim, whose colorless voice and wooden actions turned the judge into a most uninteresting person. His protestations of the difficulty of judicial decision were quite unconvincing...
...Koelb did hint at the embivalence with which Stringberg viewed the Baron's position. There was no question in the author's mind that the Baron had been wronged; his wife was a vile creature who represented all that Strindberg feared in women. At the same time, the Baron's association with his wife had despoiled him as well, leading him into unforgivable transgressions. Koelb was both remorseful and wronged, though perhaps a shade more guilty and compassionate towards his wife than Strindberg would have wished...
Miss Esterman was not nearly despicable enough. Where Strindberg sketched a viper, Miss Esterman gave us just a very protective lioness. She defended the Baroness by emphasizing maternal feelings disproportionately, softening the destructive feminism which Strindberg had bitterly written in the part...