The Father, by August Strindberg

O Pai, de August Strindberg

Theatre 6€

Saturday 26 September · until 27 Sept

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One of August Strindberg's fiercest plays, 'The Father' (1887), is staged under Gonçalo Waddington's direction: the open conflict between the Captain and Laura over their daughter Berta's education spirals into doubt, paranoia and dementia within a bourgeois household.

Synopsis We are not exaggerating if we say that The Father (1887) is one of August Strindberg's fiercest plays. A seismic shock in three acts, which continues to shake the walls of a bourgeois family's living room to its very foundations. In a traditional home, the father, the Captain, and the mother, Laura, are in open conflict over the education of their daughter, Berta. "It is like being trapped in a tiger cage." When the Captain tries to impose his will, Laura retaliates, planting in her husband's feverish imagination the virus of doubt: is he, in fact, Berta's father? The uncertainty plunges the Captain into the devastating nightmare of paranoia, hallucination and even dementia. The Father stages several of the themes dear to Strindberg, not without a shadow of misogyny: the author saw relations between men and women as a "fight to the death for power". With this play, we return to the work of the playwright of "the vast expanses of the intimate" and to Gonçalo Waddington's staging work. Artistic Sheet Text August Strindberg; Translation António Cabrita and Luis Miguel Cintra; Direction Gonçalo Waddington; Direction assistance Rafael Gomes; Cast Carla Maciel, Cecília Borges, Gonçalo Waddington, Hugo Narciso, Joana Bárcia, João Pedro Vaz and Miguel Sopas; Lighting design Daniel Worm; Sound Miguel Raposo Lima; Set and costume design Ângela Rocha; Set design assistant Catarina Sousa; Construction of structures Catarina Sousa and João Calixto; Making of the Priest and Military costumes Aldina Jesus; Costume atelier; Production direction Cláudia Teixeira; Executive production Sofia Freitas; Financial and administrative management Sufoco; A Gonçalo Waddington & Carla Maciel production in co-production with Teatro Nacional São João and São Luiz Teatro Municipal; Artistic residency support Companhia Olga Roriz; Acknowledgements EIRA, Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, Universidade Politécnica de Lisboa, João Rocha, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II Prices 1st Stalls - 15€ 2nd Stalls - 12€ Balcony boxes - 12€ 1st Central boxes - 6€ to 15€ Discounts Over 65, São Luiz Card, Unemployed, Person with disabilities, Performing Arts Teachers