ABSTRACT
Johan August Strindberg's original title was “Kama-Loka,” reflecting the influence on him at the time of Theosophy, and the theme is merciless exposure of life’s most shameful secrets. The Intimate Theatre was opening with the usual vicissitudes of small theatres and a dream play was going into rehearsal at the Swedish Theatre. Since the end of their brief married life his domestic affairs had been all awry, and the whole situation was a strain. Strindberg’s original title was “Kama-Loka,” reflecting the influence on him at the time of Theosophy, and the theme is merciless exposure of life’s most shameful secrets. He was writing, in 1907, at enormous speed and under great pressure. Strindberg’s own obsession with “the labour of keeping the dirt of life at a distance” breaks the tender idyll of the Student and the Hyacinth Girl, and the huge, sinister, vampire cook is a telling piece of Symbolism.
