The Striver (Streber). 1948.
Following the success of The Man Condemned To Death, Dagerman wrote a series of plays in quick succession. In 1947-48, he spent months at a time in France with his young family, and The Striver is dictated to his wife while on route by car. He wrote to his Swedish editor: “Having a good time here in Amsterdam and will just finish a play before we continue on toward Paris.”
Like the later The Game of Truth, this play is about betrayal. But here it takes place among a group of friends who set out on a business venture together. One of the partners secretly manipulates outcomes to his advantage at the expense of the rest of the group.
The play premiered in 1948 and was then performed at The Royal Dramatic Theater (Dramaten) in Stockholm in 1949.
“The Striver is based on a real event. My father and a few friends started up a cooperative enterprise in Stockholm but it was torpedoed in its infancy by a cunning maneuver by one of the members of the group. The result was that the start-up was taken over by another group, the culprit making himself quite a bit of money in the process.”
—Stig Dagerman, The Striver, program, Dramaten, 1948
Performances
- 2014 Streber. Directed by Olle Jansson. Royal Dramatic Theater & Riksteatern, Stockholm, Sweden. Review (in Swedish).
- 2002 Streber. Directed by Claes Lundberg, Östgötateatern, Norrköping.
- 1987 Streber. Directed by Urban Lindh, Malmö Stadsteater, Malmö.
- 1984 Streber. Directed by Urban Lindh, Malmö Stadsteater, Malmö.
- 1977 Streber. Swedish TV.
- 1971 Streber. Göteborgs Stadsteater, Göteborg.
- 1956 Streber. Atelierteatern, Göteborg.
- 1949 Streber. Directed by Göran Gentele, The Royal Dramatic Theater, Stockholm.
- 1948 Streber. Directed by Bengt Ekerot, Malmö Stadsteater, Malmö.
The play is also known to have been performed on Swedish radio and in Finland.
Editions and Translations
- Swedish: Judasdramer (with The Game of Truth), 1949. Teater 1, 1982 (Norstedts).
