'You – miserable, mean, scribbler of a man. You're quoting from that play you put me in.' Abandoning theatre, living a life of squalid splendour, August Strindberg practises alchemy. In his hotel room, he attempts to make gold by finding the philosopher's stone, the secret of creation. As his grasp on reality weakens, his first two wives visit him to bring him to his senses. But their interventions spin out of control. For four years in fin-de-siècle Paris, Europe's most famous playwright vanished. Most people thought he had gone insane. When he reappeared, his new plays changed theatre forever. Howard Brenton's play The Blinding Light tells the astonishing story of August Strindberg's 'Inferno' period. It premiered at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in 2017, directed by Tom Littler.