Ett drömspel (A Dream Play) by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg was published in 1902, and first performed in 1907. It was written at a time when Strindberg was in deep personal turmoil, having married the young actress Harriet Bosse, who after an argument a few months after they had wed left him and wrote that she was gone forever. She did return, but the trauma made a deep impression on the 51-year-old writer.

Ett drömspel came from a deep place in his psyche.In the play, the god Indra’s daughter comes down to earth to experience the living conditions of humans. As a leitmotif of the play, Indra’s daughter Agnes repeats over and over ‘It’s a pity about the people’. In his preface to the play, Strindberg wrote ‘Time and space do not exist; on an insignificant background of reality the imagination spins out and weaves new patterns; a mixture of memories, experiences, free inventions, absurdities and improvisations. The people split, double, evaporate, condense, float, gather. But one consciousness stands above all, that of the dreamer; for the dreamer there are no secrets, no consequence, no scruples, no law.’

Strindberg’s play made a deep impression on Cronqvist at a time when she was experiencing her own personal turmoil, and this portfolio of prints is a worthy and powerful accompaniment to Strindberg’s very modern relationship drama.

Ett drömspel was published by Edourd Weiss, Paris, and Öivind Johansen, Oslo, and printed by Atelier Clot, Paris, in a limited numbered edition of 170 copies, of which 81 were signed by the artist.