About the work
Tragedy in three acts by August Strindberg, originally titled "Fadren", first performed on 14 November 1887 in Copenhagen and published the same year. The play belongs to Strindberg's naturalistic marriage dramas and is still catalogued in German-language theatre under the title "Der Vater".
Plot
The Captain and his wife Laura are locked in conflict over the upbringing and future of their daughter Bertha: he wants to send her away to study in town, she wants to keep her at home. To get her way, Laura deliberately plants doubt about his paternity, systematically driving him toward madness. In the end the Captain collapses from a stroke and dies, leaving Laura in control of their daughter.
Cultural significance
Alongside "Miss Julie", "The Father" ranks among the key works of naturalistic marriage and gender-conflict drama; its unflinching depiction of psychological attrition helped shape European modernist theatre. It remains part of the active repertoire in German-speaking theatre, still listed today by the stage-rights agency Felix Bloch Erben.