August Strindberg’s 'Ghost Sonata' to haunt the UNM stage

The University of New Mexico’s theater department will perform August Strindberg’s 1907 expressionistic masterpiece, “The Ghost Sonata,” in a bold restaging by UNM professor Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez, who has also composed new music for the play.

“Strindberg is a Swedish writer, who helped inaugurate the modern theater in the West,” Rodriguez explained.

The protagonist of “Ghost Sonata” is a young poet who is fascinated by the people who live in a beautiful aristocratic home. After a mysterious old man named Hummel brings him into the home, the young poet realizes that no one inside is who they appear to be.

“It’s a play where you have ghosts and living people sharing the same space, and you don’t know who is who. Little by little, the play unfolds and you start to understand,” he said. “It’s full of ghosts and creepiness and betrayals.”

Rodriguez was struck by the play from the first time he saw it.

“I’m from Argentina, and I have been doing theater there for many years. I saw a production of ‘Ghost Sonata’ for the first time there, and I was shocked because I didn’t understand anything,” he said. “But, at the same time, it was very beautiful and very mysterious.”

The play was so unlike anything Rodriguez had seen before that it inspired years of research. Eventually, after becoming something of an expert on Strindberg’s “Ghost Sonata,” he looked for ways to make it his own.

“I read many different versions and translations, and I wanted to keep the main story as clear as possible. So, I reduced the text, because it was too long for my taste — too much conversation — and I added, together with the actors, very physical, expressionist imagery,” he said. “So, as the story unfolds, you will see that there are many images that the actors are creating with their bodies.”

“For example, you have the main scene happening in front, but behind them other actors are walking and moving in particular ways, with their faces covered by different fabrics,” he continued. “They are composing physical forms that suggest certain imagery.”

Rodriguez composed original music for the production as well, with sounds like bells and sirens contributing to an immersive soundscape.

He thought the play would be particularly appropriate for UNM’s current season.

“Every year at UNM, we have a concept for the performances that we stage, and this year the concept was danger and safety. So, I thought this would be a great performance, because it deals with dangers — not only physical dangers, but soul dangers, metaphysical dangers,” he said.

Although Strindberg’s play is spooky, Rodriguez considers it a mystery, rather than horror.

“But there is also something grotesque about it,” he said. “There’s a weird, grotesque sense of humor.”

He compares Strindberg’s peculiar blend of dark humor and suspense to that of filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock. And he wanted his own directing to enhance those elements.

“We are working on creating tension, surprising the spectator with things they don’t expect, and using music or movement or a gesture to break that tension, or to create it.”

Rodriguez emphasized, however, that the production is not all about him.

“I get a lot of input from the actors, and this is the way I like to create. It’s part of my pedagogical approach to acting,” he said. “I am a very unusual teacher and theater director, because I come from a different theater culture.”

Rodriguez explained that the theater culture he has been involved with in Argentina is strongly collaborative.

“It’s a grassroots way of working,” he said.

Rodriguez doesn’t believe in minor characters, either.

“When you see the performance, yes, you’ll see that some of the characters have more lines than others. But at the end of the day, there is not such a difference between the secondary and the main characters,” he said. “This is also, for me, a political and artistic choice. I like to have, as much as possible, a horizontal distribution of engagement.”

Rodriguez also makes a point to cast as diverse a group of actors as possible in his productions, including actors who “are not the ones that the industry most of the time puts as the star.”

“The more diverse we are, in terms of body types, mindsets, ages, skin colors and life experiences, the richer it is.”

And just as Rodriguez works to create a diverse cast, he wants his audiences to be diverse, too. He hopes people will not equate “experimental” with “difficult” or assume that they won’t enjoy “Ghost Sonata” if they’re not an expert on theater, or theater history.

“When I create, I have different spectators in my mind. For example, I think about my grandmother, who is not a theater person at all, and I want my grandma to like it — not because it’s me who did it, but because I can speak her language,” Rodriguez said. “Then, I think of a kid, around 10 years old. If he comes to see it, he should be entertained. Or a very intellectual scholar — a specialist in theater or in Strindberg — they should like it, too.”

August Strindberg’s 'Ghost Sonata' to haunt the UNM stage