ABSTRACT
In an 1887 letter to French author Émile Zola, who was a devoted supporter of the Théâtre-Libre and the first theorist of theatrical naturalism, Strindberg described The Father as ‘a drama composed with a view to the experimental formula, aiming to show the effect of the inward action at the expense of theatrical tricks, to reduce décor to a minimum, and to preserve the unity of time as far as possible’ (Strindberg 1992: 243).
