Your Chicago Guide’s tickets for two to the press opening of The Dance of Death courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre.
Written by August Strindberg and directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov, The Dance of Death continues Steppenwolf’s landmark 50th season. Now on stage through Match 22nd, 2026 at the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre, the play features ensemblemembers Cliff Chamberlain (The Minutes), Kathryn Erbe (Law and Order: Criminal Intent) and Jeff Perry (Scandal).
Adapted by Connor McPherson, The Dance of Death is a masterclass in marital warfare. At once hilarious, entertaining, horrifying, and tragic, the play focuses on one family’s generational journey riddled with secrets and grievances. Kathryn Erbe, in the female lead role, returns to the Steppenwolf stage for the first time in nearly three decades as Alice, opposite Jeff Perry’s portrayal of her husband Edgar.
In the high stone tower of an isolated naval fortress, Alice and Edgar are about to celebrate 25 years of wedded bliss – if decades of resentment, recrimination and mutual sabotage count as bliss. But when an alluring visitor arrives, the delicate balance of their tedious arrangement falls off its axis, cracks growing into canyons. In Conor McPherson’s wicked take on Strindberg’s depiction of marital warfare, a twisted love triangle waltzes off the edge of a cliff, plunging us all into the deep.
Steppenwolf Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis comment: “When we set out to program the 50th Anniversary Season, our priority was to welcome a large host of ensemble members from across Steppenwolf’s storied history back home. Nowhere is this clearer than in The Dance of Death, which has an all ensemble cast and an ensemble director at the helm. With Jeff, Katie and Cliff – representing three generations of ensemble members – in one room, we know we’re in store for a quintessentially Steppenwolf night of combustible and provoking theater.”
Written in 1900, the two-part play serves as a dark, and often darkly humorous exploration of a deeply embittered marriage between Captain Edgar and Alice, at a remote island fortress. The action of stage depicts the couple’s mutual hatred and psychological warfare. This get even more twisted with the arrival of Alice’s cousin, Kurt, turning their “little hell” into a battleground. They use Kurt as a pawn in their destructive relationship, all while facing their impending 25th anniversary and Edgar’s failing health.
Through the first act, the torturous marriage seems to be mostly Edgar’s fault. He has isolated Alice from friends and family, alienated his superior officers, and failed to build a career that could provide material comfort for his family. He is a pretentious blowhard, and though Alice is no wilting flower, he’s a drunk, and a bully, and he gives it better than he can take it.
In the second act, the tables turn, and we see just how manipulative Alice can be. She seduces her cousin Kurt, who appears through the first act to be a rather reasonable and steady witness to the madness of the marriage. Alice enacts a complex plan to have Edgar arrested and out of her life for good. Kurt digs his teeth into Alice’s neck, coming up with blood on his lips. Alice grins in triumph at his transformation into a “wild beast.” As we watch her twist and turn her new lover, Alice’s role in creating her torturous marriage becomes more and more apparent. Edgar and Alice are both horrible people, and in this horror, it appears they are perfectly matched.
Edgar and Alice may each threaten divorce, but they do not choose to take action. They may hate each other, but they hate everyone else more. They deserve each other and their homemade hell, and they are able to recognize it. While the production ends with no hope that their marriage will change—Edgar won’t die soon enough, they won’t divorce, and their dance will continue—it does leave the audience with a sense that their relationship isn’t quite as bleak as it first appears.
The Dance of Death is now on stage through Match 22nd, 2026, at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 North Halsted Street, in Chicago’s Clyburn Corridor neighborhood. Tickets are on sale here or by calling the Box Office at (312)335-1650.