Ibsen, Strindberg and the Intimate Theater

Although television drama has existed for more than half a century and is now, in terms of audience participation, the dominant form of theatre, "there is as yet hardly any serious criticism of drama on television." Martin Esslin's statement ten years ago still holds true. Seeing it as a challenge, Egil Törnqvist compares various Scandinavian and British TV versions of some of Ibsen's and Strindberg's best known plays.

By means of close readings of textual passages, followed by transcriptions and analyses of the corresponding passages in the productions, Törnqvist throws a revealing light on the difference between the textual and the audiovisual medium as well as between various directorial approaches. The first book to deal with the adaptation of stage drama to the small screen, it fills a gap both for students of drama and theatre and for those generally interested in television drama as an art form.