The drama of Kristina Lugn’s Kvinnorna vid Svansjön (The women by the Swan Lake) takes place in the dialogue and language; the same ambiguous language that is found in Lugn’s poetry. In this essay I examine how meaning and dramatic tension is created in the dialogue of Kvinnorna vid Svansjön.

I describe the play, using concepts from various drama theories. However, the most important concepts of classical drama theory such as "story" and "plot" are not really applicable. This is because of the contradictory information given in the dialogue. For the same reason, the dramatic ”space” is very hard to define. I found other concepts, ”theme/motif” and ”symbol”, more rewarding. These elements carry the spheres of interest and constitute the metaphors that create unity in the play. The main themes/motifs in this drama are ”love” and ”death”, which are closely connected to the main symbol, ”water”.

According to theatre theorist Erika Fischer-Lichte, dramatic dialogue contains a tension between ”writing” and ”orality”. This tension is my starting point when examining the dialogue of Kvinnorna vid Svansjön, which constantly alternates between monologue (writing) and face-to-face dialogue (orality). The tension between writing and orality is also present linguistically in the play; writing is represented by lyrical, metaphorical language and orality by everyday spoken language. I find that communication often occurs through associative and thematic language use. There are many connections between the metaphors/themes on the linguistic level and the motifs/themes on the dramatic level. Lugn’s thematic dialogue gives new life to worn-out metaphors.

I connect the tension in dialogue and language to the play’s floating spatial dimension, in which I make out two levels: ”reality” and ”fantasy”. These levels are as deceptive as the language of the play and help to create uncertainty and suspense about the dramatic reality.