Word: ibsenism
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...function of the Loeb Mainstage itself and partly a function of A.R.T. sets which are too conceptual to bother setting the right time-of-day tone. This darkening affect is only a part of an A.R.T "feel" that touches almost every show they produce, and their most recent, Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder, is no exception...
Egged on by Hilde he overcomes his fear of hights in a gesture of self-reviving hubris as a stagelight casts an almost messianic shadow on the back of the stage. Set and lighting, in fact, hold Ibsen's character-oriented play to a high-wire of beauty. Piping classical music brings out a gracile quatro of stage hands between acts one and two: They lay out light-cobalt platforms which in turn absorb a dull, icy lighting scheme. As the A.R.T.'s actors quickly sketch their tragedy (an uber-fable about ambition and hubricguilt), its stagecraft is relentlessly Scandinavian...
Robert Brustein's adaptation of Ibsen's writing skids between the deconstructive (he has the master builder claim that he builds "machines for living") and the pedestrian, furthering the productions stance as a dark fable of universal applicability. At times the story of the master builder, at a zenith of reputation and skills, seems to mirror Brustein's own career, except that Brustein "climbs the steeple" with nearly every production. The Master Builder climbs up an icy ladder; it doesn't fall...
...extraordinary play, about a mother and daughter testing each other's patience in a bleak corner of rural Ireland, gradually displays an imposing arsenal of playwrighting weapons: a well-made plot that keeps bending in unexpected ways; flashes of sardonic comedy; and a sense of tragic inevitability that Ibsen himself might have admired. Flawlessly performed by the original London cast (three of the four won Tonys), it is one of the major theatrical experiences...
...sultry cousin of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Demme, in working with screenwriter Adam Brooks on the final version of LaGravenese's script, found himself looking back further. "The more we focused in on 124 Bluestone Road, the more I thought, 'This is Ibsen, this is Chekhov, this is Morrison...