August Strindberg (“The Dance of Death,” “Miss Julie”) wasn’t known for his comedies. The current revival of the Swedish playwright’s rarely seen 1893 work “Playing With Fire” isn’t going to change that.
Translated by Ulrika Brand and adapted by Leslie Lee (“The First Breeze of Summer”), this all-black co-production by the Negro Ensemble Company and the August Strindberg Repertory Theatre moves the setting to 1926 in the Oak Bluffs neighborhood of Martha’s Vineyard. Something has clearly been lost along the way.
The play concerns the romantic triangle among aspiring artist Newt (Nathan James), his wife, Kersten (Toccarra Cash), and their ne’er-do-well friend Axel (James Edward Becton). Axel’s bent on seducing Kersten, which Newt doesn’t seem to mind since he’s got eyes for his beautiful cousin Adelle (Jaleesa Capri).
Adelle, meanwhile, is being pursued by Newt’s father (Jolie Garrett) — “a member of the East Coast colored elite” — who grudgingly bankrolls his son’s artistic dabbling; Newt’s mother (Elizabeth Flax) seems oblivious to it all, walking around whistling “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
Lee’s attempt to make the play more accessible only succeeds in adding a different layer of exoticism. (I doubt Strindberg’s original includes offstage moans of sexual ecstasy and a scene in which a man manually stimulates a woman under her dress.) The Chekhovian-style comedy falls flat, with the performers foundering under Robert Greer’s stilted direction.
Strindberg completists will probably want to check out such a curiosity. But this damp “Playing With Fire” doesn’t give off any sparks.