BWW Q&A: Daniel Gerroll of DR GLAS at 7 STAGES

Daniel Gerroll has spent the last five years shepherding one of Sweden’s most notorious psychological dramas from page to stage. In 1905, Hjalmar Söderberg’s novella Dr Glas shocked its original readers; now, under Jeffrey Hatcher’s first serious English-language adaptation, Gerroll brings the physician’s fraught moral journey and forbidden obsession to life as a solo performance.

From early workshops in Aspen to its 2023 premiere at Kyiv’s Ukraine Fringe Festival, and on to Edinburgh, Gothenburg and Tallinn, he has refined both a stripped-down two-chair version and a fully produced staging. This summer he takes Dr Glas to Atlanta’s 7 STAGES, then on to Harrisburg, Philadelphia and back to Europe, exploring how Fringe festivals provide the ideal crucible for a one-person show.

In our conversation, he reflects on acquiring the rights, collaborating with Hatcher, and the challenges of embodying a man whose passion leads him to the brink of unthinkable action.

What drew you to the character of Dr. Glas and the themes of this Swedish classic?

Tycho Gabriel Glas is a person who has had only scant moments of anything close to actual passion for most of his life. Then that one thing comes along to throw his life into chaos, the greatest fear of the repressed soul ... the sudden burst of life... infatuation... or perhaps we can call it love. The story in enriched not only by his coming alive emotionally but by his attitude toward the attitudes of his time - 1905 Stockholm with the hypocrisies of a society just about to be shaken and challenged by the twentieth century. How do you allow yourself to come alive when it means breaking the rules? And what are the costs? And could it possibly, under any circumstances, end happily?

How has your interpretation of Dr. Glas evolved over the five years of developing this play?

I play seven different characters in the piece. As much as Glas has grown dimensionally, the role that has equally evolved is that of Helga Gregorius the object of Glas's infatuation. Is she aware of the effect she has on Glas? Is she a coquette? Is she manipulative or genuinely at the mercy of an abusive pastor to whom she is unhappily married? Does she know of Glas's feelings for her? It is wonderful to hear what the audience thinks the answers are.

What challenges and rewards have you found in performing a one-person adaptation?

The biggest challenge, without doubt was performing it in Kyiv in 2023 after being kept awake by air raid sirens and performing it outdoors in the courtyard of a bar famous for fostering anarchism a hundred years ago. Not challenging because it was difficult but because I had so much to live up to. It is the very essence of theatre going back to Homer wandering the mediterranean world delivering his epic poem in person from town to town. I doubt Homer needed props, scenery and sound effects [a simple stringed instrument perhaps?] In the same spirit Dr Glas can be performed fully produced with sound, lights and set or it can be performed simply with two chairs. What I have have found is that the two chairs [and a passion] approach has been magical. To pull it off a performer needs first rate writing and that is what Jeff Hatcher has given me.

How have different audiences, from Edinburgh to Atlanta, responded to this production?

The fact that the play reflects issues that were relevant 125 years ago and still today means that audiences have beem strongly engaged in the story. When I do post show talk backs or have a chance to chat with the audience on the way out i am always amazed at the degree to which they feel the need to talk about it. The smallest audiences I have played to have been at the Edinburgh fringe. But size didnt matter. I was met with the same heartfelt gratitude for bringing Hatcher's adaptation to them that I received in other countries. The theatres in San Diego and Santa Monica wanted to bring it back. Most gratifying was the response in Gothenburg, Sweden where I played to packed houses.

Why must audiences come and see the show?