In this volume Strindbergs accomplishments as a dramatist are set against his achievements in other fields as an autobiographer painter letter writer and theatre director. There are studies of individual plays in which Strindbergs theatre is related both to naturalism and the theatre of the absurd and of the role played by his lifelong interest in historical drama as a means of mirroring his own experience. Other essays consider the problems posed by Strindbergs preoccupation with converting his own life into literature and the relationship between his later plays and the musical Expressionism of Schoenberg and Berg as well as the importance he placed on letterwriting as a model for writing of all kinds these letters are also used to explore his ideas about acting and theatre generally.