SOURCE: Wirmark, Margareta. “Strindberg's Queen Christina: Eve and Pandora.” Scandinavian Studies 62, no. 1 (winter 1990): 116-22.

In the following essay, Wirmark considers the relevance of the play-within-a-play in Queen Christina.

In the fourth act of Strindberg's drama Queen Christina (Kristina, 1901), there is a play within the play that draws upon Greek mythology. Let us call this play Pandora. It takes place at a private party given by Christina for Klas Tott. The two lovers are the only actors. This drama is of great interest from different aspects, also from a dramaturgical point of view. The Pandora play is composed of two different and contrasting parts, as will be shown later, and both actors play several parts.

The queen herself is the producer of the play. It starts when Klas Tott arrives at the party, in all probability costumed as Prometheus. At the same moment a rain of flowers falls from...