The Stronger

An interesting adaptation of 19th-century Swedish playwright August Strindberg's play The Stronger, director Reed Evans' nicely filmed short is set at a theatre rehearsal where two women meet at a café (on Christmas Eve, circa the 1950's). One, the wife of a theatre director, has the only speaking part--bitterly cataloging the grief that the other woman (her husband's lover) has caused her, yet also glorifying in her tenacity and ultimate triumph: she retains the dubious prize of the husband. A film within a film, the stage action is interwoven with meaningful looks and glances between the two actresses and the rehearsal director which make it clear that an identical situation exists between the players and those within the play. The film falters near the end when the two women kiss each other (an action supported by historical elements in the deeply neurotic and misogynist Strindberg's life, but not dramatically credible within the context of the program); still, larger humanities collections will want to consider this otherwise engaging, well-acted, and thought-provoking penseé on the sexes. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)