Why is it that plays featuring fractured, toxic and often hilarious families feel right at home at Steppenwolf? Why has this company, through fifty years, been continuously drawn back to the dynamics of parents and children, husbands and wives, who do not (or cannot) distinguish between domestic life and open warfare? 

Of course, plays sharply focused on family life usually have a lot to say about the universal. Everyone has navigated family, in one way or another. Every family has its dramatic dysfunctions (the Steppenwolf family included) and we’d be lying if we said otherwise. 

But that’s not the whole story. 

We produce these plays because we love them. We are obsessed with them. Steppenwolf will always produce works that stretch our company, that embrace new forms, that surprise and delight our audiences. But, eventually, we come home: Drama. Cruelty. Hilarity. Family. 

In that way, we aren’t so different from Edgar and Alice in August Strindberg’s wicked masterpiece The Dance of Death, here seamlessly and thoughtfully adapted by a longtime friend of Steppenwolf, Conor McPherson. This couple’s circular brinkmanship is their defining marital bond; it’s what unites them, what drives them and what brings them back together. 

And they are right at home in the pantheon of Steppenwolf icons. 

Over 125 years ago—before Purpose, before August: Osage County, before Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, before Sam Shepard’s haunting plays about American families—the Swedish iconoclast August Strindberg wrote a play that fits our company like a glove. 

It is a testament to this company’s history that, in one production, audiences can see the work of four eras of Steppenwolf ensemble members at once. Cliff Chamberlain joined the company in 2018, and director Yasen Peyankov joined in 2002. Kathryn Erbe, a company member since 1992, is back onstage here for the first time in almost three decades. And Jeff Perry, one of our intrepid co-founders, is here to deliver one of the finest performances of his career. That cross section of artists contains over 100 collective years of Steppenwolf experience. 

This intergenerational company, this rowdy ensemble, obsessed with unhappy homes. 

So why do we love these plays? What can we say? It’s a family thing. 

Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis
Artistic Directors

STEPPENWOLF PRESENTS

THE DANCE OF DEATH

By August Strindberg
In a New Version by Conor McPherson
Directed by Yasen Peyankov^†‡

FEATURING

Cliff Chamberlain^†*, Kathryn Erbe^†*, Jeff Perry^†*

CREATIVE TEAM

Collette Pollard⁺ Scenic Design
Ana Kuzmanic⁺ Costume Design
Lee Fiskness⁺ Lighting Design
Rick Sims⁺ Sound Design & Original Music
Jyreika Guest Fight & Intimacy Consultant
Jason K. Martin Vocal Coach 
Claire Kaplan Movement Consultant
Abhi Shrestha Dramaturg
Patrick Zakem Creative Producer
Tom Pearl Producing Director
JC Clementz, CSA Casting
Laura D. Glenn* Production Stage Manager
Kathleen Barrett* Assistant Stage Manager

“The Dance of Death” is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint. (www.dramatists.com)

† member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble.
* member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.
+ member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the IATSE.
‡ member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

CAST

Cliff Chamberlain^†* Kurt
Kathryn Erbe^†* Alice
Jeff Perry^†* Captain

UNDERSTUDIES

Tiffany Bedwell^* Alice
Shane Kenyon^* Kurt
John Lister^* Captain

ADDITIONAL STAFF

Sonya Madrigal Assistant Director
Josephine Everett Associate Costume Design
Maaz Ahmed Assistant Lighting Design
Newton Schottelkotte Assistant Sound Design
Alex Umekubo Production Assistant
Emmerich Mager, Claudette Przygoda Sound Technicians
Charles G. LaPointe Wigs
Charlotte Rivard-Hoster Piano Coach
Daniel Carter Costume Assistant
Lyndsie Crawford First Hand
Willa Coufal, Janelle Manno, Kyra Pan, Riley Trzeciak Stitchers
Alexander Zeek Tailor
Josh Derby, Billy Earnisse, Kenny Faust, John McTaggart, Naava Ofri-Akman Additional Carpenters
Marcus Klein Additional Properties
Zhanna Albertini, Devin Meseke, Jessica Wardell, Abby West Additional Paint

The Dance of Death will be presented in two acts,  including a 15-minute intermission. 

As a courtesy to the actors and your fellow patrons, please turn off your cell phones before the performance. The taking of photographs and the use of any type of recording device are not allowed in the theater during performances and is a violation of state and federal copyright laws; digital media will be deleted, and tape or film will be confiscated.

Entry and re-entry into the theater after the performance begins is not guaranteed.

The theater reserves the right to limit admission of children younger than the age of six.