The Father

THE FATHER

CHARACTER: Nöjd

Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles

April/May, 1998

WRITTEN BY: August Strindberg

ADAPTED BY: Richard Nelson

DIRECTED BY: Clifford Williams

CAST:

Frank Langella – The Captain
Ivar Brogger – The Pastor
William Verderber – Orderly
Garret Dillahunt – Nöjd
Carolyn McCormick – Laura
Michael Haney – Doctor Östermark
Anne Pitoniak – Margaret
Angela Bettis – Bertha

REVIEW:

It comes as a relief to see Frank Langella take his curtain call after the harrowing experience his character has undergone in August Strindberg’s “The Father.” So completely does Langella disappear into the role of the Captain that one is surprised to see that actor and character are in fact two different entities, and at least one has survived Strindberg’s feverish imagination. “The Father” is that sort of play. The drama unfolds with all the psychic intensity and obsessive power of a life-changing dream — or nightmare. The play’s interior logic is as tightly wound and inexorable as the grip of fate in Greek tragedy. Rarely has the war between the sexes been dramatized with such stark, primal force. [THR]

Back to THEATRE

Back to GARRET DILLAHUNT NEWS