![]() Structurally, his best work owes a debt to the 19th-century ideal of the "well-made play" in that it relies on suspense, surprise, calculated contrivance. What is it about the old sage of Skien that still fascinates us? At its most basic, I think it's the fact that Ibsen is both ancient and modern. What's unusual is to have three new productions arriving in a week: A Doll's House opened last Monday at the Young Vic, swiftly followed by Hedda Gabler at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton then, last Thursday, a comparative rarity: his early play St John's Night at London's Jermyn Street theatre. You can't really talk about an Ibsen revival since, in the near-half-century I've been reviewing theatre, his plays have hardly ever been off the British stage. ![]() "I didn't know he'd been away," was Hauser's sharp reply. "Do you think Shaw is coming back?" a student once rashly asked the late Oxford Playhouse director Frank Hauser. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |