O Pelicano

“There was something wrong here”, it is said during the first scene of O Pelicano [ The Pelican ]. What went wrong behind the walls of this bourgeois house, built by August Strindberg in 1907? The father has just died, taking with him the fragile balance that seemed to exist between the other family members: his widow, Elise, and his two children, Fredrik and Gerda. Lies, concealed for years, burst out everywhere and spread like uncontrollable shadows, engulfing all characters. At the age of 58, Strindberg founded his own playhouse in Stockholm, the Intimate Theatre. He opened it precisely with The Pelican and a statement: “Tonight, we begin with tragedy/ And tragedies are not very amusing.” According to Ingmar Bergman, Strindberg used to say to some of his contemporaries: “Watch out! In my next play, I will settle a few scores with you.” The time has come for stage director Nuno Cardoso to settle a few scores with August Strindberg.