AUGUST STRINDBERG'S PLAY IS GIVEN NEW LEASE OF LIFE

On the centenary of Swedish playwright August Strindberg's death comes Laurie Slade's visceral reworking of his 1887 Naturalistic tragedy. Starring Alex Ferns, formally of Eastenders' infamy as the overbearing Captain Adolph, with acting veteran June Watson as his long-suffering wife Laura, this play is directed by Abbey Wright.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

A long-married couple are at loggerheads over the future of their teenage daughter Bertha; the mother Laura wishes for her to stay at home and become an artist, while Cpt Adolph is determined that she go to study as a teacher. When Laura tries to reason with him, he coldly replies that she has no say in the matter, as she signed all her rights over to him through marriage. Incensed, Laura firstly claims that he is not Bertha's true father, and then sets out on a manipulative quest to prove that her husband is mad, even provoking him into violent action in order to have him institutionalised. The chain of events rapidly gains pace when the doctor is summoned Laura is praised for her strength of character by both him, and in a surprising twist, her husband. But can she reconcile this when her husband's health takes a deadly turn for the worse?