Word: ibsenism
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Hall launched the project with star vehicles: Vanessa Redgrave in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending and Dustin Hoffman in The Merchant of Venice, both of which transferred to Broadway. Now he aims at London only, ranging from the money-harried gloom of Ibsen's The Wild Duck to the haute-bourgeois sexual antics of Tartuffe. In October he returns briefly to the nonprofit R.S.C. with an All's Well That Ends Well starring Sophie Thompson, sister of Oscar winner Emma. His best evidence yet that a classic can prevail on the basis of the text itself is Lysistrata. The ancient Greek...
HEDDA GABLER, A FIERCELY INDEPENdent woman trapped in bourgeois-marriage hell, keeps a set of pistols around the house, and it's only a matter of time before one goes off. The tragedy may be inevitable, but a new MASTERPIECE THEATRE production of Ibsen's classic play (PBS, March 28) is possibly the first to make it seem like a blessed relief. Fiona Shaw's self-absorbed, unsympathetic portrayal makes Hedda ditso from the start: darting, distracted gestures, nervous facial tics and a voice that drops to an inaudible whisper about every third line. Stephen Rea (The Crying Game...
...show is held together by Alexandre Schnieders' portrayal of Doctor Stockmann. His acting, although often simplistic, is so ebullient and frenetic that the audience is held rapt. The Doctor, who can appear a distant and unsympathetic character on reading Ibsen's text, becomes more appealing through Schneider's warm performance...
Gender confusion cripples the portrayal of the Doctor's brother and rival, Pytir (Marcy De Nezza). While there is no difficulty in casting a woman in the part Ibsen wrote for a man, the director hasn't established a consistent pronoun policy for Pytir; this confusion gives rise to lines such as "The doctor's brother, she...". This difficulty is compounded by De Nezza's absurd top hat, which perches precariously on top of her head like the bunny ears on a Vegas show girl. The audience has trouble concentrating on her (good) acting while they decide where she stands...
...play addresses an idea, not a slice of everyday life. Ibsen has unrealistically attempted to cram the Doctor's psychological transformation from peaceful burgher to megalomaniac into two stage hours. Director Billy Hulkower would ideally make this metamorphosis more believable by hinting at it early in the production. As it is, this sudden transformation jars. The music, becoming audible at random moments throughout the production, also adds to the sense of unreality...