Topic: Peer Gynt

Mataya · Date: 2011-11-06 19:07 EST

Named Cast

Peer Gynt, her son - Jonathan Granger 'se, a peasant's widow - Frida Shappard Aslak, a blacksmith - Nelson Milsap The farmer at H"gstad - Luke Shaunessy Ingrid, his daughter - Saundra Lothrop The Old Man of the Mountains, a troll king (Also known as, The Mountain King) - Eurus Vulturnus The B"yg, a voice in the darkness - Ludo Von Eschenbach Kari, a cottar's wife - Lakisha Selley Master Cotton. - Armand Pershing Monsieur Ballon - Luke Shaunessy Mr. von Eberkopf - Fidel Wiebusch Mr. Trumpeterstrale - Nelson Milsap Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin chief - Katelynn Hueser The Memnon statue - Eurus Vulturnus The Sphinx at Giza - Ludo Von Eschenbach Dr. Begriffenfeldt, director of the madhouse at Cairo - Armand Pershing Huhu, a language'reformer from the coast of Malabar - Frida Shappard Hussein, an eastern Minister - Fidel Wiebusch

Act I

Peer Gynt is the son of the once highly regarded Jon Gynt. Jon Gynt spent all his money on feasting and living lavishly, until there was nothing left; thus, Jon had to go from his farm as a wandering salesman, leaving his wife and son behind in debt. 'se, the mother, wished to raise her son to restore the lost fortune of his father, but Peer is soon to be considered useless. He is a poet and a braggart, not unlike the Norwegian youngest son from the fairy tales, the "Ash Lad", with whom he shares some characteristics.

As the play opens, Peer gives an account of a reindeer hunt that went awry, a famous theatrical scene generally known as "the Buckride." His mother scorns him for his vivid imagination, and taunts him because he spoiled his chances with Ingrid, the daughter of the richest farmer. Peer goes straight to Ingrid's wedding, scheduled for the following day, because he may still get a chance with the bride. His mother follows quickly to stop him from shaming himself completely. Peer Gynt, as drawn by Peter Nicolai ArboAt the wedding, Peer is taunted and laughed at by the other guests, especially the local blacksmith, Aslak, who holds a grudge after an earlier brawl. But in the same wedding, Peer meets a family of Haugean newcomers from another valley. He instantly notices the daughter, Solveig, and asks her to dance. She refuses because of her father and because Peer's reputation has preceded him. She leaves, and Peer starts drinking. When he hears that the bride has locked herself in, he seizes the opportunity and runs away with the bride, and spends the night with her in the mountains ...

Act II

His action has a consequence: Peer is banished. As he wanders the mountains, his mother, Solveig, and Solveig's father search for him. During his getaway, he meets 3 amorous dairy-maids who are waiting to be courted by trolls. He becomes highly intoxicated with them and spends the next day alone suffering from a hangover. He runs head-first into a rock and swoons, and the rest of the second act takes place in Peer's dreams. He comes across a woman clad in green who turns out to be the daughter of the troll mountain king. Together they ride into the mountain hall, and the troll king gives Peer the opportunity to become a troll if Peer would marry his daughter. Peer agrees to a number of conditions, but declines in the end. He is then confronted with the fact that the green-clad woman is with child. Peer denies this; he claims not to have touched her, but the wise troll king replies that he begat the child in his head. Crucial for the plot and understanding of the play is the question asked by the troll king: What is the difference between troll and man"

The answer given by the Old Man of the Mountain is: "Out there, where sky shines, humans say: 'To thyself be true.' In here, trolls say: 'Be true to yourself-ish.'" Egoism is a typical trait of the trolls in this play. From then on, Peer uses this as his motto, always proclaiming that he is himself, whatever that is. One of the most interesting characters is the B"yg; a creature who has no real description. On the question "Who are you?" The B"yg answers, "myself." In time, Peer also takes the B?yg's important saying as a motto: "Go around." The rest of his life, he "beats around the bush" instead of facing himself or the truth.

Upon waking up, he is confronted by Helga, Solveig's sister, who gives him food and regards from her sister. Peer gives the girl a silver button for Solveig to keep, and asks that she not forget him.

Mataya · Date: 2011-11-06 19:08 EST

Act III

As an outlaw, Peer struggles to build his own cottage in the hills. Solveig turns up and insists on living with him. She has made her choice, she says, and there will be no return for her. Peer is delighted and welcomes her, but as she enters the cabin, an elderly woman in a green dress appears with a limping boy at her side. This is the green-clad woman from the mountain hall. She has cursed him by forcing him to remember her, and all his previous sins, when facing Solveig. Peer hears a ghostly voice saying, "Go roundabout, Peer", and decides to leave. He tells Solveig he has something heavy to fetch. He returns in time for his mother's death, and then sets off overseas.

Act IV

Peer is away for many years, taking part in various occupations and playing various roles including that of a businessman engaged in enterprises on the coast of Morocco. Here, he explains his view of life, and we learn that he is a businessman with dirty money on his hands. He has been a missionary, a slave-trader, and many other things. His friends rob him, and leave him alone on the shore. Then he finds some stolen bedouin gear, and in these clothes, he is hailed as a prophet by a local tribe. He tries to seduce Anitra, the chieftain's daughter, but she gets away, and leaves him. Then he decides to become a historian, and travels to Egypt.

He wanders through the desert, passes the Memnon and the Sphinx. As he addresses the Sphinx, believing her to be the B"yg, he encounters the keeper of the local madhouse, himself insane, who regards Peer as the bringer of supreme wisdom. Peer comes to the madhouse, and understands that all of the patients live in their own worlds, being themselves to such a degree that no one cares for anyone else. In his youth, Peer had dreamt of becoming an emperor. In this place, he's finally hailed as one " the emperor of the "self." Peer despairs and calls for the "Keeper of all fools," i.e. God.

Act V

Finally, on his way home as an old man, he is shipwrecked. Among those on board, he meets the Strange Passenger, who wants to make use of Peer's corpse to find out where dreams have their seat. This passenger scares Peer out of his wits. He lands on shore bereft of all of his possessions, a pitiful and grumpy old man. Back home in Norway, Peer Gynt attends a peasant funeral, and an auction, where he offers for sale everything from his earlier life. The auction takes place at the very farm where the wedding once was held.

Peer stumbles along, and is confronted with all that he didn't do, his unsung songs, his unmade works, his unwept tears, and his questions that were never asked. His mother comes back and claims that her deathbed went awry. He didn't lead her to heaven with his ramblings. Peer escapes and is confronted with the Button-molder, who maintains that Peer's soul must be melted down with other faulty goods unless he can explain when and where in life he has been "himself." Peer protests. He has been only that, and nothing else.

Then he meets the troll king, who states that he has been a troll, not a man, most of his life. The molder comes along and says that he has to come up with something if he is not to be melted down. Peer looks for a priest to confess his sins, and a character named the Lean One (who is the Devil), turns up. He believes Peer cannot be accounted a real sinner who can be sent to hell. He has not done anything serious. Peer despairs in the end, understanding that his life is forfeited. He understands he is nothing. But at the same moment, Solveig starts to sing " the cabin he himself built, is close at hand, but he dares not enter. The B"yg in him tells him "around."

The molder shows up and demands a list of sins, but Peer has none to give, unless Solveig can vouch for him. Then he breaks through to her, asking her for his sins. But she answers: "You have not sinned at all, my dearest boy." Peer does not understand " he believes himself lost. Then he asks her: "Where has Peer Gynt been since we last met' Where was I as the one I should have been, whole and true, with the mark of God on my brow?" She answers; "In my faith, in my hope, in my love." Peer screams and calls his mother, and hides himself in her lap. Solveig sings her lullaby for him, and we might presume he dies in this last scene of the play, although there are no stage directions or dialogue to indicate that he actually does.

Behind the corner, the button-molder, who is sent by God, still waits, with the words: "Peer, we shall meet at the last cross-roads, and then we shall see if. ...I'll say no more."

((Feel free to post your responses to the play here, or just reference it in your own way. Whatever you do, have fun with it!))

Jonathan Granger · Date: 2011-11-07 19:47 EST

The Shanachie Theater November 6th Final Rehearsal before Opening Night

"What in God's name was that"!" Ludo shouted, his voice loud enough so that even the cast and crew waiting in the wings and backstage overheard the explosive outburst. "That was the most lackluster performance I have ever seen. You're an actor, Granger, not a cardboard cutout. Knowing your lines isn't enough. You have to feel the role, become the character. If you can't feel Peer's pain, the audience won't either. They won't believe you, and they'll turn on you so fast, your head will spin. Again, from the top, and for God's sake, give it some feeling this time!"

A consummate professional, Jon should know all of this already. Something was obviously wrong. He tried again. Or, to be more precise, Jon's double tried again. Again and again, but nothing changed. He knew all his lines. He didn't stumble even once. Not one mistake. Every word was memorized and recited perfectly, but the performance lacked feeling. No matter how many times he rehearsed it, it remained the same. Lackluster and boring.

After three more tries, Ludo exploded again, throwing his arms up in disgust, narrowing his eyes angrily at the actor and poking an accusing finger against his chest. "I don't know what?s wrong with you, Granger, but if you don't get your sh*t together, Shaunessy is taking your place, got it?"

The director flashed an angry look at the rest of the company, who looked about as flabbergasted by their director's latest outburst as they were at their lead actor's sudden lack of talent. "All of you? This isn't a high school production. You aren't children. We are professionals here, and I expect' No, I demand perfection! This is serious theater, people!"

Ludo swung his gaze back to Jon's double, who looked neither concerned nor upset by the director's angry outburst. "Tomorrow is opening night. There's no time to coddle prima donnas. Rehearse it again and keep rehearsing it until you get it right, do you hear me?"

The man turned on a heel, face flushed with anger, and stormed toward the door, calling for the theater's owner loud enough to wake the dead. "DE LUCA!" he shouted. "The great Jonathan Granger, my a$$!" he mumbled to himself, on his way out.

~~~~~

Somewhere across town, at that very moment, the real Jonathan Granger was unaware of what was going on at the theater, unaware that his job was in jeopardy and that his double was in the process of ruining both his career and his life. The real Jon Granger was unconscious, full of painkillers and sedatives strong enough to put the most stubborn of men to sleep. After the living nightmare he and Shen Lei had just gone through, it was the only way he was going to get any sleep.

While Jon slept, the slayer was making plans to finish the job once and for all. And somewhere else not far away, a certain vampire was planning a trip to the theater to pay a visit to her favorite actor.

Mataya · Date: 2011-11-08 19:17 EST

The reading of the first reviews were always a nerve-wracking time for any production, and after the disastrous run of rehearsals for Peer Gynt, the tension in the Shanachie could have been cut with a knife. This time, Mataya had gone out of her way to get her hands on first editions of all the newspapers before Ludo had the chance to peruse them, having a pretty shrewd idea of what was going to be said.

Jon had been, to be frank, absolutely dreadful. Even knowing his troubles, 'Taya had been shocked when he'd walked out on stage and performed Peer Gynt as though it was a kindergarten outing. There was just nothing there, and thanks to the lead being as entertaining as a steaming turd, the rest of the cast had struggled horribly. She'd never been more relieved to see the curtain come down, or more pained by lackluster applause.

Sitting at her desk, it took several long minutes for the theater owner to gather the courage to open the first paper. And there it was ....her worst business nightmare come to life.

Peer Gynt, one of the Earth playwright Ibsen's great masterpieces, played to great critical acclaim everywhere the Earth strain of human has spread, and now showing at the Shanachie. And dull as paint. Jonathan Granger has lost his touch. That is simply all I can say. Two and a half hours of watching a character who usually garners the audience's sympathy or vitriole stumble through fantastical situations without even a spark of feeling for the characters that surround him, much less his own reactions. I sat through it all, waiting for some sign that the much-vaunted Mr Granger was merely employing some thespian trick which would draw me in as the play continued on, only to be severely disappointed. His acting was dry, lifeless, the emotional content of each scene ignored in favor of blatant ham-acting, as though volume could somehow make up for his inability to portray an iconic figure of Earth literature. Perhaps it is time for the ever-generous Ms De Luca to take a step back and re-evaluate her star. Watching paint dry might actually have been more enjoyable.

They were all the same. The critical reception for Peer Gynt was universally appalled, characterised openly by their disgust for Jon's performance. Mataya groaned, lowering her head into her hands. How the hell was she going to smooth this over?

Mataya · Date: 2011-11-15 15:32 EST

One week. One whole week since that dreadful review, and the frankly horrific events that had followed it. In retrospect, a bad review didn't seem half so awful as it had at the time of reading, not with dead bodies, vampires, and murder all happening in the theater barely twenty-four hours after it had been published.

Cleaning up after the vampires had been easy enough. An hour with a vacuum cleaner and a phone call to the local carpenters had put the dressing rooms to rights once again. More difficult to handle had been the body of young Carlos Harcourt, the usher who had been unfortunate enough to be used by the vampires to gain access to the backstage area in the first place. Mataya never, ever wanted to relive the experience of informing his family of what had happened, unable to do more than offer her sincerest condolences for their loss. If she was very lucky, they wouldn't take the story to the press, or sue.

And then there was this. She stared at the unopened newspapers on her desk, chewing on her lip nervously. It had taken five days of begging and pleading to convince just three of the critics who had originally reviewed Peer Gynt to come back and see it again, drawing on all her charm and good humor to assure them that it was worth their time and energy. Just three, out of almost twenty, had agreed. She just had to hope that three would be enough.

Gathering her courage, she opened the first of the newspapers, turning quickly to the theater section, and braced herself for the worst.

In thirty years of reviewing theatrical endeavors, I have never once returned to the scene of the crime to reassess my initial opinion. The Shanachie is fortunate in it's owner, Mataya De Luca, for her charming manner convinced me to set aside this long-held rule and give the theater's production of Peer Gynt a second chance. I am overjoyed to be able to say that it was not the wrong decision.

The play is unrecognisable as the disaster I witnessed on opening night. Jonathan Granger appears to have recovered from whatever was blighting his abilities to deliver a consistently enthralling performance. He holds the character of Peer Gynt up to the light, and shows us all the flaws through the eyes of the characters he meets on his journeys in a manner reminiscent of Olivier and McKellen. It is impossible not to sympathise with him as he travels through fantastical landscapes, meeting weird and wonderful people and creatures, all of whom give him just a little more insight into his own purpose on this earth.

Thanks to Granger's uplifting performance, the cast seem to be rejuvenated themselves, each giving their own performance of the myriad tangle of characters new life and meaning. Ibsen is reborn on Rhy'Din once again as the pinnacle of Scandanavian stagecraft, thanks to the endeavors of a cast able to pull themselves up and improve, it seems, overnight.

I disregard my remarks of last week pertaining to Peer Gynt, and strongly urge anyone to attend the run of this play before it ends on the 27th of this month. The Shanachie once again has delivered the goods in timely and near perfect fashion.

"Oh, thank god ..." Mataya dropped the paper, leaning back in her seat as relief flooded through her body, making a mental note to do something lovely for the esteemed critic, Francis Long, who had gone back on himself and allowed his perceptions to be changed. At least now she could be vaguely confident that Jon's reputation, and by extension, that of the theater and herself, had been restored, and with all the luck in the world, they could continue to run a little while longer.