Write an essay on what you would consider the problems of producing any ONE play on this part of the unit.  You may refer to actual and/or imaginary productions.

‘It’s strange how a story can be told in two such different ways’.  This is a comment spoken very early in The Ghost Sonata, by one of the central characters, and it seems to embody the problems of production that exist at the very heart of the play.  The interpretation or presentation of any event depends very much on the motives and perceptions of the speaker.  For a play like The Ghost Sonata, which is very minimalist in terms of explicit character and plot development, interpretation is left very much to the imagination of the audience and therefore there is no direct manner of presenting the play.  Strindberg wrote this play as a chamber play, intending it to be performed in his Intimate Theatre.  He wrote it in the style of a sonata, hoping to place an emphasis on mood and atmosphere as opposed to character and plot.  Thus the play moves in one transient piece, sustaining the audiences attention in the hypnotic fashion of a piece of music.  Much symbolism is placed upon simple artefacts/moments within the play, and it is the producer’s decision exploit these things that determines the audience’s grasp of the mood of the play.

Through careful use of language, Strindberg makes it virtually impossible for producer’s to create a singular interpretation of any one moment within the play.  Particularly important, Strindberg makes extensive use of the pause, in order create an atmosphere full of foreboding and uncertainty.  However the audience is never entirely sure of what the actual mood means.  To them it is just a feeling.  The producer can not remove himself entirely from this ambiguity, but he can use other stage effects in order to manoeuvre the audience’s reaction into a certain direction.  Therefore all characters within The Ghost Sonata, evade specific interpretation.

The Student is the first character to speak within the play, and he is drawn instantly towards the figure of the milkmaid, of whom we are told in the casting list, is a vision.  This raises the question as to whether or not the Student is a ghost himself - a matter that not even the Student appears to be sure of, as he says: ‘I was there, you see, yesterday evening, when the house collapsed… now you know.’(scene 1). The pause and the final three words of this statement – ‘now you know’ seem to indicate an uncertainty in his own understanding of the declaration.  The fact that he was in the house that collapsed could allude to the fact that now he is a ghost, the pause being reminiscent of his realisation of that.  This would make his final three words an affirmation of his own disease.  Alternatively the Student could be aware that he is dead from the start and so the pause is a break to permit the Milkmaid time to understand why he can see her.  Opposite to either of these interpretations is the possibility that the student is not dead and the pause is emblematic of his own confusion – he is tired and weary from rescuing people and he is irritated at having to explain himself to the silent maid.  His final three words therefore, become an attempt to complete a sentence and fill a gap, reiterating his annoyance with her lack of response to his story.  This is an interpretation of realism.

Join now!

As the first scene progresses, certainty of who the student is, decreases rapidly, as Strindberg makes more extensive use of the pause.  Old Man Hummel recognises the Student from his account to the maid and the corresponding article on him in the newspaper.  However, as he informs the Student of his sudden fame, he leaves a pause at the end of a sentence which leaves it ambiguous as to whether the student survived the accident or not:  

        Old Man:  … I’ve just been reading about it in the paper…

        Student:     Have they already got hold ...

This is a preview of the whole essay