During his tenure as Artistic Director of the original National Theatre, Laurence Olivier continued to command the stage with magnificent performances notably Othello, since frowned upon by the PC brigade and the 'wokerati', Tattle in 'Love for Love', Shylock, James Tyrone in 'Long Day's Journey into Night' and Captain Edgar in Strindberg's 'Dance of Death'.
One can fully understand why the role of the Captain would appeal to him as he is able to utilise all the weapons in his acting armoury and is by turns ferocious, wheedling, paranoid and pathetic as well as employing a staccato military bark that pierces the eardrums. Pauline Kael described his tour de force as audacious and daring, an opinion few would dispute.
It requires a strong actress to hold her own in his overpowering presence and the superlative Geraldine McEwan, reprising her stage performance, is utterly mesmerising and more than a match. She plays his wife Alice, based upon actress Siri von Essen with whom Strindberg had a stormy fourteen year marriage. The man between is Kurt, a sheep among wolves, who is played by the excellent Robert Lang, replacing Robert Stephens. Edgar and Alice's daughter Judith is played by Janina Faye whose sexually manipulative character provides a grim reminder that the cycle of Love-Hate is destined to continue ad infinitem.
Glen Byam Shaw directed the original production and here it has been entrusted to television director David Giles. Cinematography is by Geoffrey Unsworth who was to be behind the camera for Olivier's film of 'Three Sisters'.
Strindberg's stark, visceral and blackly humorous piece was years ahead of its time and its influence on the mutually destructive male/female relationships depicted by Ingmar Bergman is there for all to see, not to mention Edward Albee's 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?'.
