Word: ibsens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Written by Henrik Ibsen...
Written by Henrik Ibsen...
Director Mark Prascak has trimmed Ibsen's epic-length verse drama Peer Gynt to a more comfortable hour and forty minutes, reduced its cast to 10 actors playing a multiplicity of roles, changed its title character's name, modernized its dialogue, and staged it on the edge of a swimming pool. Does it work? I don't know; it's hard to tell...
Prascak has also kept much of Ibsen's poetic language intact. However, he inexplicably destroys the poetic effect by injecting banal modernisms into Ibsen's imagery. Prascak peppers the play with pronouncement's like Peerless' "I feel as strong as a Chicago Bear." Is Prascak making fun of Ibsen's lofty verse, or blindly sacrificing poetry for a cheap laugh? I don't know; it's hard to tell...
Similarly, the characters and settings are updated, presumably in an attempt to make Ibsen's satire more relevant to a Harvard audience. Trolls become yuppies. Slave trading becomes arms dealing. War in Greece becomes war in Nicaragua. And the ocean becomes--literally--the Adams House swimming pool. These are all easy targets for jokes, but Prascak has nothing novel or interesting to say about them...