After I listened to the audiobook of the play, I went back and reread some sections in my Kindle edition of "Plays by August Strindberg, Second Series" and read the introduction to the play as well. One important fact that the introduction provided was that Strindberg wrote this play "... only a year before he finally decided to free himself from an impossible marriage by an appeal to the law...". Even with the wife Tekla clearly being portrayed as the "bad" one in the marriage, I noticed that there was a strong vein of feminism (similar to Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in many ways). For example, Tekla saying to her second husband:

  "Isn't that lovely! Women can be stolen as you steal children or chickens? And you regard me as his chattel or personal property. I am very much obliged to you!"

The 'creditors' of the title are Tekla's former & current husbands as described in this passage:

  Adolph: "To love like a man is to give; to love like a woman is to take. -- And I have given, given, given!"
  Tekla: "Pooh! What have you given?"
  Adolph: "Everything!"
  Tekla: "That's a lot! And if it be true, then I must have taken it. Are you beginning to send in bills for your gifts now? ..."

And indeed he is, egged on by Gustav who Adolph doesn't realize is Tekla's former husband.

While none of the characters are completely 'true to life', they act out a situation & emotions that are. A thought-provoking play that I need to ponder further... ( )