Your theatrical mission, should you choose to forgo leaving a performance with everything tied up in a cheery bow, is to attend August Strindberg’s 1907 play, “The Ghost Sonata,” with an open mind.

The new production, by students in the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Department of Visual and Performing Arts, opens Thursday at Ent Center for the Arts, and runs through March 22.

“It’s just like going into an evening of chamber music — you’re expected to go in and let it wash over you,” said director and UCCS theater professor Kevin Landis. “Let it have an emotional response. If you want to make sense of it, there’s plenty of sense to make, but you don’t have to. At the end, have the feels and figure out why it moved you.”

The story

“A young man meets an old mysterious benefactor who takes him to a ghostly supper where he falls in love with a young lady,” Landis said. “That, on its surface, is what the story is about. But because it’s ‘The Ghost Sonata,’ it’s important the audience come into the piece thinking about what is spiritual and symbolic? What is real life? Who are human beings and who are ghosts?”

Rife with symbolism

It’s called “The Ghost Sonata” for a reason. The show is populated by ghosts, and what Strindberg means by ghosts, whether literal or metaphorical.

“We’re playing a lot with shrouding and people and things being wrapped up,” Landis said. “The idea of wrapping and apparitions and ghostliness is a central symbol. You can look at it just on the level of who’s dead or alive, or say what are the things about ourselves that we cover up and shroud to present an image of ourselves that is more palatable?”

Who was Strindberg?

The prolific Swedish playwright was one of the forefathers of theatrical expressionism, which inspired modernist theater, avant-garde theater and other changes in theater in the 20th century. His 1888 play, “Miss Julie,” is the work most commonly done in the U.S.

“Most theater scholars would say (‘Ghost Sonata’) is rarely done because it’s so hard, and he was so brilliant that every line is filled with meaning that nobody is going to get on first read, which is OK,” Landis said. “He wanted plays that had the feel of a dream and the plausibility of reality.”

Why is the play important?

Strindberg wrote “Ghost Sonata” coming off the 19th century, when theater was big and bombastic, and melodrama prevailed.

“That’s not how people were writing plays,” Landis said. “This is not a play you’re supposed to understand at a superficial level. There’s no clear, well-made play. He was interested in creating dream pieces.”

Strindberg’s chamber plays

The playwright founded the Intimate Theatre in Stockholm, where he produced his chamber plays, a term he originated that referred to chamber music, or smaller ensembles playing in an intimate setting. He incorporated these ensembles into his chamber plays, which also had small casts, short run-times and no intermission.

True to form, the upcoming production of “Ghost Sonata” will feature cellist Pamela Chaddon, violinist Elisa Wicks and Simon Jacobs on keyboard on stage performing works by Bach, Beethoven and music inspired by the two composers for the duration of the show. Music will begin 15 minutes before each performance. Chaddon and Landis will also lead a conversation about the works of Bach and Strindberg following each show.

If you go

What: “The Ghost Sonata,” by University of Colorado Colorado Springs Department of Visual and Performing Arts

When: Opens 7:30 p.m. Thursday, runs 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays, through March 22

Where: Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.

Price: $22.75, free UCCS students; entcenterforthearts.org