Today is August Strindberg’s birthday (b.1849 in Sweden). He was prolific as an essayist, painter, philosopher, and playwright. His dramas are charged with passion, distrust, and hostility, one character for another. Some of his work is naturalistic, other pieces more abstract, poetic, symbolic. However you look at it, his work is distinctive, peppered with paranoid intensity. Victims and victimizers, circling one another, playing for keeps.

Mr. Strindberg’s plays reflect his excitable nature. His work has plenty of juice between the lines, no doubt about it.

Rhinos don’t relate Mr. Strindberg’s way, if We can avoid it. We manage this by minding our own business and staying clear of Expectations or Romantic Notions. We give each other room.