Funny Biting Dance of Death at Steppenwolf

I don’t really look to August Strindberg for a comedy fix, but Conor McPherson’s new version of the 1900 classic tale of a toxic marriage The Dance of Death now on at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the hands of director Yasen Peyankov is one of the funniest plays I have recently seen albeit in a very dark way. 

You know you are in for something special when you enter the theatre and are faced with an ancient elaborate tower of an abode: Colette Pollard’s set tells us so much about the actually rocky isolation and barren-ness of whoever lives there. When the aging alcoholic Captain (Jeff Perry in a tour de force performance of physical comedy) and his cagey wife Alice (an astoundingly smart and calculating Kathryn Erbe) enter and begin their dastardly manipulations of each other as they approach their 25th wedding anniversary, you see a couple that lives to torment each other.  Neither is a victim here, though they often retreat into the corner of this mental boxing ring. The shifting power dynamics is like watching a master chess game.  But everyone around them is collateral damage: their children, their subordinates, the servants that will not stay in this poisonous house. And most especially Kurt (the towering and earnest Cliff Chamberlain) the best friend who introduced them years ago and who is Alice’s cousin.  This is psychological warfare and prisoners will be taken. Betrayals layer upon betrayals and you need a score sheet to keep track.  And it is very very funny due to these highly accomplished actors who pull out all their stops: there is literal blood.

As is the case with great comedy, you will feel uncomfortable with what you find yourself laughing at, but the performances are so filled with dynamic timing and surprises that you can’t stop watching.  This play is a wickedly bleak demonstration of Jean-Paul Sartre’s line: hell is other people. Go see this play.  Folks will be talking about it long after it closes.

The Dance of Death is playing in the Downstairs Theater at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company through March 22, 2026. For tickets and more information including a special night to learn the dance steps inspired by the show go to https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets--events/seasons-/2025-26/the-dance-of-death/

Photo by Michael Brosilow

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