The program for the new Audible & Together production shows that the play is “by August Strindberg, in a new version by Jen Silverman.” The script for the same production says that the play is “by Jen Silverman, after August Strindberg.” So is it any wonder that this version of Creditors feels a bit confused?
As with the other show running in repertory, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (a title that could easily be applied to Strindberg’s 1888 play as well), this production being presented at the intimate Minetta Lane Theatre boasts a starry cast, here comprised of Liev Schreiber, Maggie Siff, and Justice Smith, the last having made a name for himself with such films as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and I Saw the TV Glow. Directed by Ian Rickson, this freewheeling adaptation is the handiwork of Silverman, recently represented on Broadway with The Roommate.
Strindberg’s play, less famous than his The Father and Miss Julie, is not frequently performed these days, making it a little frustrating that Silverman opted for so many alterations. The drama is still set in the parlor of a remote seaside hotel, but the language is decidedly modernistic (and don’t expect to hear the titular word in the dialogue). There’s also a general softening of Strindberg’s bracing astringency, most notably with an ending that has been changed from fiercely tragic to something resembling an encounter session.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
But the basic plotline has been retained, involving the devious mind games played by Gustav (Schreiber), who has befriended Adi (Smith) at the hotel where the young man, an artist, is staying with his somewhat older wife Tekla (Siff), a successful writer. Coming across like a junior-level Iago (a part Schrieber has also played), Gustav plants seeds of doubt in Adi’s mind concerning Tekla’s love and faithfulness. What Adi doesn’t know, spoiler alert, is that Gustav is Tekla’s former husband, who has taken great offense at the way she’s portrayed him in her new novel and is now seeking revenge.
Later, when Gustav encounters Adi and pretends that he’s just arrived at the hotel, he manipulates her as well, attempting to damage her relationship with her husband and possibly win her back in the process.
Strindberg’s play has lost none of its power in its depiction of a sexually liberated and confident woman, an insecure younger man, and an aggrieved former spouse who attempts to undermine them. Silverman has updated the psychological mind games to make the female character the smartest and most self-aware of the trio (Strindberg was known to think not too highly of women in general). In this version, Adi is not quite as vulnerable, and Gustav not quite as venal, with the latter’s emotional vulnerability made more manifest. The changes generally work to make the play feel more contemporary, with the exception of that new ending which doesn’t work at all.
It all benefits greatly from Rickson’s restrained direction which smartly puts the emphasis on the superb performances. Schreiber brings a disarming, sly casualness to his character’s deceptions, with the result that his underplaying proves all the more effective. The appealing Smith makes his character’s susceptibility to malign influence fully believable. And Siff fully convinces in her portrait of a free-spirited woman who finds herself in the middle of a perverse battle of wills between the two men.
The effective scenic design by Brett J. Banakis and Christine Jones manages to be both subtly old-fashioned and modernistic, and Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound design subtly heightens the piece’s emotional impact. Best of all, it’s performed without amplification, allowing us to hear the actors’ natural voices.
This cannily programmed alternating bill, each play commenting on the other in their treatments of power games played between men and women in which the roles of victor and victim are not so easily defined, represents a strong start for this laudable theatrical venture.
Creditors opened May 18, 2025, at the Minetta Lane Theatre and runs through June 18. Tickets and information: audible.com
