Word: ibsens
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When We Dead Awaken suffers from none of the faults that typify a failed production. The actors are not incompetent, the substance of the play, at least as it left Ibsen's hands, is more than satisfactory, and the scenery borders on the faultless...
...problem rests squarely with Wilson's staging of the play. Of all of Ibsen's plays, the last four, and particularily When We Dead Awaken, are largely symbolic in nature. When We Dead Awaken, so highly autobiographical, lends itself to introspective interior monologues. Yet as modern drama it is not unconcerned with realism. Wilson's adaptation and direction, in their effect at least, are. The tremendous liberties taken with the play's staging reflect this difference poignantly...
Elements entirely absent from Ibsen's original play have been introduced: Irene's character has been split into two persons, one dressed in white and the other in black. Ulfheim, originally a Scandanavian squire, has acquired a thick Texas accent. A spear, brandied about by various characters, becomes the production's major focus for over an hour. And three "knee plays", short musical skits devised by talented singer/dancer Charles "Honi" Coles (who also plays the spa's manager), precede each...
...addition, Wilson deconstructs Ibsen's dialogue, attempting to investigate the structure of language. The play's characters speak, gesture and ambulate in an exaggerated and often absurd manner. Recorded voice-overs and other deafening sound effects add further to the viewer's disorientation...
Wilson's staging destroys the realism of Ibsen's modern drama. Even worse, it trivializes the symbolism of Ibsen's writing. Meaning and impact, far from being subtle or impressive, become clumsy and disjunctive. Dialogue screams out to be underlined, to be noticed...