James Wilson takes a look at The Enchantment:
As an overlooked piece of theatre history, Victoria Benedictsson's semi-autobiographical The Enchantment, currently receiving its US premiere in a production by Ducdame Ensemble, is a fascinating curio. Benedictsson (1850-1888) is a highly regarded novelist and playwright in her native Sweden, and she is recognized as an early feminist and fierce advocate for free love. She had a scandalous affair with Georg Brandes, one of the leading literary critics of the day, and when the relationship came to a disastrous end, she killed herself in a hotel room by slitting her throat with a razor. In death she became better known among modern drama scholars as the inspiration for August Strindberg's Miss Julie and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. For this reason alone, The Enchantment, written just a few months before the playwright's death in 1888, is worth seeing. Unfortunately, the play, which has been translated and adapted by Tommy Lexen, is not nearly as riveting as its backstory. . . . |
