SOURCE: Ekman, Hans-Göran. “Abu Casems tofflor: Strindberg's Worst Play?”. In Strindberg and Genre, edited by Michael Robinson, pp. 188-99. Norvik Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Ekman critiques Abu Casems tofflor.

Strindberg criticism seems to agree on at least one point: that his 1908 sagospel (fairy tale) in five acts, Abu Casems tofflor, is the weakest of his published dramas.¹ In the final volume of his biography of Strindberg, Gunnar Brandell goes so far as to claim that it is the only one of Strindberg's plays that could have been written by someone else.²

My purpose here is not to proclaim Abu Casems tofflor a masterpiece out of sheer contrariness. However, I believe that it is unmistakably Strindbergian and as such of great interest to those who are also interested in Strindberg's personality.

Strindberg has for once generously recounted both the origins of this drama and the source of...