The Chamber Plays

Abstract

The final development in Strindberg’s art as a dramatist came about in the group of plays he wrote specifically for the repertoire of his Intimate Theatre: Storm, The Burned House, Ghost Sonata, The Pelican and a Christmas piece, The Black Glove. In calling them chamber plays, he associated his and Falck’s theatre project with Max Reinhardt’s contemporary opening of the Kammerspielhaus (chamber playhouse) in Berlin, as well as suggesting that these works have a dramatic equivalence to chamber music. Although only Ghost Sonata declares in its title the symbolist cultivation of musical form, Strindberg referred to the whole group as his late sonatas, perhaps inviting comparison with those of Beethoven.