| Peer Gynt | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Henrik Klausen as Peer (1876) | |
| Written by | Henrik Ibsen |
| Date premiered | 24 February 1876 (1876-02-24) |
| Place premiered | Christiania (now Oslo), Norway |
| Original language | Norwegian |
| Genre | Romantic dramatic poem converted into a play |
Peer Gynt (/pɪərˈɡɪnt/peerGHINT,Norwegian:[peːrˈjʏnt,-ˈɡʏnt])[a] is a five-act play in verse written in 1867 by the Norwegian dramatistHenrik Ibsen. It is one of Ibsen's best known and most widely performed plays.
Peer Gynt chronicles the journey of its titular character from the Norwegian mountains to theNorth African desert and back. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, "its origins areRomantic, but the play also anticipates the fragmentations of emergingmodernism" and the "cinematic script blendspoetry with social satire and realistic scenes withsurreal ones."[2]Peer Gynt has also been described as the story of a life based on procrastination and avoidance.[3]
Ibsen wrotePeer Gynt in deliberate disregard of the limitations that the conventionalstagecraft of the19th century imposed on drama.[4] Its forty scenes move uninhibitedly in time and space and between consciousness and theunconscious, blendingfolkloric fantasy and unsentimentalrealism.[5]Raymond Williams comparesPeer Gynt withAugust Strindberg's early dramaLucky Peter's Journey (1882) and argues that both explore a new kind ofdramatic action that was beyond the capacities of the theatre of the day; both created "a sequence of images in language and visual composition" that "became technically possible only in film."[6]
Ibsen believedPer Gynt, a Norwegian fairy-tale by which the play is loosely inspired, to be rooted in fact. He also wrote that he had used his own family—the intertwinedIbsen/Paus family ofSkien—and childhood memories as "some kind of model" for the Gynt family;[7] he acknowledged that the character of Åse—Peer Gynt's mother—was based on his own mother,Marichen Altenburg, while Peer's father Jon Gynt is widely interpreted as based on Ibsen's fatherKnud Ibsen.[8] He was also generally inspired byPeter Christen Asbjørnsen's collection of Norwegian fairy-tales,Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn, published in 1845.
The play was written in Italy, and a first edition of 1,250 copies was published on 14 November 1867 by the Danish publisherGyldendal inCopenhagen.[9] Although the first edition swiftly sold out, a reprint of two thousand copies, which followed after only fourteen days, did not sell out until seven years later.[10] During Ibsen's lifetime, Denmark and Norway had a largely identical written language based on Danish, but Ibsen wrotePeer Gynt in a somewhat modernizedDano-Norwegian that included a number of distinct Norwegian words.[11]
Peer Gynt was first performed in Christiania (nowOslo) on 24 February 1876, withoriginal music composed byEdvard Grieg that includes some of today's most recognised classical pieces, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Morning Mood". It was published in German translation in 1881, in English in 1892, and in French in 1896.[12] The contemporary influence of the play continues into the twenty-first century; it is widely performed internationally both in traditional and in modern experimental productions.
WhileBjørnstjerne Bjørnson admired the play's "satire on Norwegian egotism, narrowness, and self-sufficiency" and described it as "magnificent",[13]Hans Christian Andersen,Georg Brandes andClemens Petersen all joined the widespread hostility, with Petersen writing that the play was not poetry.[14] Enraged by Petersen's criticisms in particular, Ibsen defended his work by arguing that it "is poetry; and if it isn't, it will become such. The conception of poetry in our country, in Norway, shall shape itself according to this book."[15] Despite this defense of his poetic achievement inPeer Gynt, the play was his last to employ verse; fromThe League of Youth (1869) onwards, Ibsen was to write drama only in prose.[16]
Peer Gynt is the son of the once-highly regarded Jon Gynt, who spent all his money on feasting and living lavishly and had to leave his farm to become a wandering salesman, leaving his wife and son behind in debt. Åse, his wife, wished to raise her son to restore the lost fortune of his father, but Peer is soon considered to be useless. He is a poet and a braggart, not unlike the youngest son from theNorwegian fairy-tale "TheAsh Lad", with whom he shares some characteristics.
As the play opens, Peer gives an account of areindeer 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 leaves for 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.
At the wedding, the other guests taunt and laugh at Peer, especially the local blacksmith, Aslak, who holds a grudge after an earlier brawl. In the same wedding, Peer meets a family ofHaugean newcomers from another valley. He instantly notices the elder daughter, Solveig, and asks her to dance. She refuses because her father would disapprove, and because Peer's reputation has preceded him. She leaves, and Peer starts drinking. When he hears the bride has locked herself in, he seizes the opportunity, runs away with her, and spends the night with her in the mountains.
Peer is banished for kidnapping Ingrid. As he wanders the mountains, his mother and Solveig's father search for him. Peer meets three amorousdairymaids who are waiting to be courted bytrolls (a folklore motif fromGudbrandsdalen). 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 probably takes place in Peer's dreams.
He comes across a woman clad in green, who claims 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 has become pregnant. 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: 'To thyself be enough.'"Egotism 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. He then meets theBøyg — a creature who has no real description. Asked the question "Who are you?" the Bøyg answers, "Myself". In time, Peer also takes the Bøyg's important saying as a motto: "Go around". For the rest of his life he "beats around the bush" instead of facing himself or the truth.
Upon awaking, Peer 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.
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 old-looking woman in green garments appears with a limping boy at her side.
This is the green-clad woman from the mountain hall, and her half-human brat is the child begotten by Peer from his mind during his stay there. She has cursed Peer 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.
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 ofMorocco. Here, he explains his view of life, and we learn that he is a businessman taking part in unethical transactions, including sending heathen images to China and trading slaves. In his defense, he points out that he has also sent missionaries to China, and he treated his slaves well.
His companions rob him, after he decides to support the Turks in suppressing a Greek revolt, and leave him alone on the shore. He then finds some stolenBedouin 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 steals his money and rings, gets away, and leaves him.
Then he decides to become a historian and travels toEgypt. He wanders through the desert, passing theColossi of Memnon and theSphinx. As he addresses the Sphinx, believing it to be the Bøyg, 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 is finally hailed as one — the emperor of the "self". Peer despairs and calls for the "Keeper of all fools", i.e.,God.
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 origin. This passenger scares Peer out of his wits. Peer lands on shore bereft of all of his possessions, a pitiful and grumpy old man.
Back home in Norway, Peer 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 did not 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 did not 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 Peer has been a troll, not a man, most of his life.
The Button-molder says that he has to come up with something if he is not to be melted down. Peer looks for a priest to whom to confess his sins, and a character named "The Lean One" (who is theDevil) turns up. The Lean One believes Peer cannot be counted a real sinner who can be sent to Hell; he has committed no grave sin.
Peer despairs in the end, understanding that his life is forfeit; he is nothing. But at the same moment, Solveig starts to sing—the cabin Peer built is close at hand, but he dares not enter. The Bøyg in Peer tells him "go around". The Button-molder shows up and demands a list of sins, but Peer has none to give, unless Solveig can vouch for him. Then Peer breaks through to Solveig, asking her to forgive 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, calls for his mother, and hides himself in her lap. Solveig sings her lullaby for him, and he presumably dies in this last scene of the play, although there are neither stage directions nor 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 crossroads, and then we shall see if... I'll say no more."
Klaus van den Berg argues thatPeer Gynt
... is a stylistic minefield: Its origins are romantic, but the play also anticipates the fragmentations of emergingModernism. Chronicling Peer's journey from the Norwegian mountains to the North African desert, the cinematic script blends poetry with social satire, and realistic scenes with surreal ones. The irony of isolated individuals in a mass society infuses Ibsen's tale of two seemingly incompatible lovers – the deeply committed Solveig and the superficial Peer, who is more a surface for projections than a coherent character.[2] The simplest conclusion one may draw fromPeer Gynt, is expressed in the eloquent prose of the author: "If you lie; are you real?"
The literary criticHarold Bloom in his bookThe Western Canon has challenged the conventional reading ofPeer Gynt, stating:
Far more thanGoethe's Faust, Peer is the one nineteenth-century literary character who has the largeness of the grandest characters of Renaissance imaginings. Dickens, Tolstoy, Stendhal, Hugo, even Balzac have no single figure quite so exuberant, outrageous, vitalistic as Peer Gynt. He merelyseems initially to be an unlikely candidate for such eminence:What is he, we say,except a kind of Norwegian roaring boy? – marvelously attractive to women, a kind of bogus poet, a narcissist, absurd self-idolator, a liar, seducer, bombastic self-deceiver. But this is paltry moralizing – all too much like the scholarly chorus that rants againstFalstaff. True, Peer, unlike Falstaff, is not a great wit. But in the Yahwistic, biblical sense, Peer the scamp bears the blessing: More life.[17]
On 5 January1867 Ibsen wrote toFrederik Hegel, his publisher, with his plan for the play: it would be "a longdramatic poem, having as its principal a part-legendary, part-fictional character fromNorwegian folklore duringrecent times. It will bear no resemblance toBrand, and will contain no directpolemics or anything of that kind."[18]
He began to writePeer Gynt on 14 January, employing a far greater variety ofmetres in its rhymed verse than he had used in his previous verse playsBrand (written 1865) orLove's Comedy (written 1862).[19] The first twoacts were completed in Rome and the third in Casamicciola on the north of the island ofIschia.[20]
During this time, Ibsen toldVilhelm Bergsøe that "I don't think the play's for acting" when they discussed the possibility of staging the play's image of acasting-ladle "big enough to re-cast human beings in."[21] Ibsen sent the three acts to his publisher on 8 August, with a letter that explains that "Peer Gynt was a real person who lived inGudbrandsdal, probably around the end of the last century or the beginning of this. His name is still famous among the people up there, but not much more is known about his life than what is to be found inAsbjørnsen'sNorwegian Folktales (in the section entitled 'Stories from the Mountain')."[22] In those stories, Peer Gynt rescues the three dairy-maids from thetrolls and shoots theBøyg, who was originally a gigantic worm-shaped troll-being. Peer was known to telltall tales of his own achievements, a trait Peer in the play inherited. The "buck-ride" story, which Peer tells his mother in the play's first scene, is also from this source, but, as Åse points out, it was originally Gudbrand Glesne fromVågå who did the tour with the reindeer stag and finally shot it.
Following an earthquake on Ischia on 14 August, Ibsen left forSorrento, where he completed the final two acts; he finished the play on 14 October.[23] It was published in a first edition of 1,250 copies a month later inCopenhagen.[9]
Ibsen's previous play,Brand, preached the philosophy of "All or nothing." Relentless, cruel, resolute, overriding in will, Brand went through everything that stood in his way toward gaining an ideal.Peer Gynt is a compensating balance, a complementary color toBrand. In contrast to Brand, with his iron will, Peer is willless, insufficient, and irresolute. Peer "goes around" all issues facing him.[24]
Brand had a phenomenal literary success, and people became curious to know what Ibsen's next play would be. The dramatist, about this time, was relieved of financial worry by two money grants, one from the Norwegian government and the other from the Scientific Society ofTrondhjem. This enabled him to give to his work an unfettered mind. He went with his family toFrascati, where, in the Palazzo rooms, he looked many feet down upon theMediterranean, and pondered his new drama. He preserved a profound silence about the content of the play, and begged his publisher, Hegel, to create as much mystery about it as possible.[24]
The portrayal of the Gynt family is known to be based on Henrik Ibsen's own family—the intertwinedIbsen/Paus family ofSkien—and childhood memories; in a letter toGeorg Brandes, Ibsen wrote that his own family and childhood had served "as some kind of model" for the Gynt family. In a letter to Peter Hansen, Ibsen confirmed that the character Åse, Peer Gynt's mother, was based on his own mother,Marichen Altenburg.[25][26] The character Jon Gynt is considered to be based on Ibsen's fatherKnud Ibsen, who was a rich merchant before he went bankrupt.[27] Even the name of the Gynt family's ancestor, the prosperous Rasmus Gynt, is borrowed from the Ibsen's family's earliest known ancestor. Thus, the character Peer Gynt could be interpreted as being an ironic representation of Henrik Ibsen himself. There are striking similarities to Ibsen's own life; Ibsen himself spent 27 years living abroad and was never able to face his hometown again.
Ibsen askedEdvard Grieg to composeincidental music for the play. Grieg composed a score that plays approximately ninety minutes. Grieg extractedtwo suites of four pieces each from the incidental music (Opus 46 and Opus 55), which became very popular as concert music. One of the sung parts of the incidental music, "In the Hall of the Mountain King", was included in the first suite with the vocal parts omitted. Originally, the second suite had a fifth number, "The Dance of the Mountain King's Daughter", but Grieg withdrew it. Grieg himself declared that it was easier to make music "out of his own head" than strictly following suggestions made by Ibsen. For instance, Ibsen wanted music that would characterize the "international" friends in the fourth act, by melding the said national anthems (Norwegian,Swedish,German,French andEnglish). Reportedly, Grieg was not in the right mood for this task.[citation needed]
The music of these suites, especially "Morning Mood" starting the first suite, "In the Hall of the Mountain King", and the string lament "Åse's Death" later reappeared in numerous arrangements,soundtracks, etc.
Other Norwegian composers who have written theatrical music forPeer Gynt includeHarald Sæverud (1947),Arne Nordheim (1969),Ketil Hvoslef (1993) andJon Mostad (1993–4).Gunnar Sønstevold (1966) wrote music for a ballet version ofPeer Gynt.
In 1906, scenes from the play were given by the Progressive Stage Society ofNew York.[24] The firstUS production ofPeer Gynt opened at theChicago Grand Opera House on October 24, 1906, and starred the noted actorRichard Mansfield,[24] in one of his very last roles before his untimely death. In 1923,Joseph Schildkraut played the role onBroadway, in aTheatre Guild production, featuringSelena Royle,Helen Westley,Dudley Digges, and, before he entered films,Edward G. Robinson. In 1944, at theOld Vic,Ralph Richardson played the role, surrounded by some of the greatestBritish actors of the time in supporting or bit roles, among themSybil Thorndike as Åse, andLaurence Olivier as the Button Molder. In 1951,John Garfield fulfilled his wish to star in a Broadway production, featuringMildred Dunnock as Åse. This production was not a success, and is said by some to have contributed to Garfield's death at age 39.
On film, years before he became a superstar, the seventeen-year-oldCharlton Heston starred as Peer in a silent, student-made, low-budget film version of the play produced in 1941.Peer Gynt, however, has never been given a full-blown treatment as a sound film in English on the motion picture screen, although there have been several television productions, and a sound film was produced inGerman in 1934.
In 1957,Ingmar Bergman produced a five-hour stage version[28] ofPeer Gynt, atSweden'sMalmö City Theatre, withMax von Sydow as Peer Gynt. Bergman produced the play again, 34 years later,[29] in 1991, at Sweden'sRoyal Dramatic Theatre, this time withBörje Ahlstedt in the title role. Bergman chose not to use Grieg's music, nor the more modern Harald Sæverud composition, but rather traditional Norwegian folk music, and little of that either.
In 1993,Christopher Plummer starred in his own concert version of the play,[30] with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Hartford, Connecticut. This was a new performing version and a collaboration of Plummer and Hartford Symphony Orchestra Music Director Michael Lankester. Plummer had long dreamed of starring in a fully staged production of the play, but had been unable to. The 1993 production was not a fully staged version, but rather a drastically condensedconcert version, narrated by Plummer, who also played the title role, and accompanied byEdvard Grieg's completeincidental music for the play. This version included a choir and vocal parts for soprano and mezzo-soprano. Plummer performed the concert version again in 1995 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with Lankester conducting. The 1995 production was broadcast on Canadian radio. It has never been presented ontelevision nor released oncompact disc. In the 1990s Plummer and Lankester also collaborated on and performed similarly staged concert versions ofA Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (with music byMendelssohn) andIvan the Terrible (an arrangement of aProkofiev film score with script for narrator). Among the three aforementioned Plummer/Lankester collaborations, all received live concert presentations and live radio broadcasts, but onlyIvan the Terrible was released on CD.
Alex Jennings won the Olivier Award for Best Actor 1995/1996 for his performance in theRoyal Shakespeare Company's production ofPeer Gynt.
In 1999,Braham Murray directed a production at theRoyal Exchange Theatre inManchester withDavid Threlfall as Peer Gynt,Josette Bushell-Mingo as Solveig andEspen Skjønberg as Button Moulder.
In 2000, theRoyal National Theatre staged a version based on the 1990 translation of the play byFrank McGuinness.[31] The production featured three actors playing Peer, includingChiwetel Ejiofor as the young Peer,Patrick O'Kane as Peer in his adventures in Africa, andJoseph Marcell as the old Peer. Not only was the use of three actors playing one character unusual in itself, but the actors were part of a "color-blind" cast: Ejiofor and Marcell are black, and O'Kane is white.[32]
In 2001, at the BBC Proms, theGothenburg Symphony Orchestra andBBC Singers, conducted byManfred Honeck, performed the complete incidental music in Norwegian with an English narration read bySimon Callow.[33]
In 2005, Chicago's storefront theater The Artistic Home mounted an acclaimed production (directed by Kathy Scambiatterra and written byNorman Ginsbury) that received two Jeff Nominations for its dynamic staging in a 28-seat house.[34][35] The role of Peer was played by a single actor, John Mossman.[36]
In 2006,Robert Wilson staged a co-production revival with both the National Theater ofBergen and the Norwegian Theatre ofOslo, Norway. Ann-Christin Rommen directed the actors in Norwegian (with English subtitles). This production mixed both Wilson's minimalist (yet constantly moving) stage designs with technological effects to bring out the play's expansive potential. Furthermore, they utilized state-of-the-art microphones, sound systems, and recorded acoustic and electronic music to bring clarity to the complex and shifting action and dialogue. From April 11 through the 16th, they performed at theBrooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House.
In 2006, as part of the Norwegian Ibsen anniversary festival,Peer Gynt was set at the foot of theGreat Sphinx of Giza nearCairo, Egypt (an important location in the original play). The director was Bentein Baardson. The performance was the centre of some controversy, with some critics seeing it as a display of colonialist attitudes.
In January 2008, theGuthrie Theater inMinneapolis debuted a new translation ofPeer Gynt by the poetRobert Bly. Bly learned Norwegian from his grandparents while growing up in rural Minnesota, and later during several years of travel in Norway. This production stages Ibsen's text rather abstractly, tying it loosely into a modern birthday party for a 50-year-old man. It also significantly cuts the length of the play. (An earlier production of the full-length play at the Guthrie required the audience to return a second night to see the second half of the play.)
In 2009,Dundee Rep with theNational Theatre of Scotland toured a production. This interpretation, with much of the dialogue in modern Scots, received mixed reviews.[37][38] The cast included Gerry Mulgrew as the older Peer. Directed by Dominic Hill.
In November 2010,Southampton Philharmonic Choir and the New London Sinfonia performed the complete incidental music using a new English translation commissioned from Beryl Foster. In the performance, the musical elements were linked by an English narrative read by actorSamuel West.[39]
From June 28 through July 24, 2011,La Jolla Playhouse ran a production ofPeer Gynt as a co-production with theKansas City Repertory Theatre, adapted and directed by David Schweizer.[citation needed]
The 2011Dublin Theatre Festival presented a new version ofPeer Gynt by Arthur Riordan, directed by Lynne Parker with music by Tarab.[citation needed]
AtVinstra inGudbrandsdalen (the Gudbrand valley), Henrik Ibsen and Peer Gynt have been celebrated with an annual festival since 1967. The festival is one of Norway's largest cultural festivals, and is recognized by the Norwegian Government as a leading institution of presenting culture in nature. The festival has a broad festival program with theatre, concerts, an art exhibition and several debates and literature seminars.
The main event in the festival is the outdoor theatre production ofPeer Gynt at Gålå. The play is staged inPeer Gynt's birthplace, where Ibsen claims he found inspiration for the character Peer Gynt, and is regarded by many as the most authentic version. The play is performed by professional actors from the national theater institutions, and nearly 80 local amateur actors. The music to the play is inspired by the original theatre music byEdvard Grieg – the "Peer Gynt suite". The play is one of the most popular theater productions in Norway, attracting more than 12,000 people every summer.
The festival also holds thePeer Gynt Prize, which is a national Norwegian honor prize given to a person or institution that has achieved distinction in society and contributed to improving Norway's international reputation.
Peer Gynt Sculpture Park (Peer Gynt-parken) is a sculpture park located inOslo,Norway. Created in honour of Henrik Ibsen, it is a monumental presentation ofPeer Gynt, scene by scene. It was established in 2006 bySelvaag, the company behind the housing development in the area. Most of the sculptures in this park are the result of an international sculpture competition.
In 1912, German writerDietrich Eckart adapted the play. In Eckart's version, the play became "a powerful dramatisation of nationalist and anti-semitic ideas", in which Gynt represents the superior Germanic hero, struggling against implicitly Jewish "trolls".[40] In this racial allegory the trolls and Great Bøyg represented what philosopherOtto Weininger – Eckart's hero – conceived as the Jewish spirit. Eckart's version was one of the best attended productions of the age with more than 600 performances in Berlin alone. Eckart later helped to found theNazi Party and served as a mentor toAdolf Hitler; he was also the first editor of the party's newspaper, theVölkische Beobachter. He never had another theatrical success afterPeer Gynt.[41]
In 1938, German composerWerner Egk finished an opera based on the story.
In 1948, the composer Harald Sæverud made a new score for the nynorsk-production at "the Norwegian Theatre" (Det Norske Teatret) in Oslo. Sæverud incorporated the national music of each of the friends in the fourth act, as per Ibsen's request, who died in 1906.
In 1951, North Carolinian playwrightPaul Green published an American version of the Norwegian play. This is the version in which John Garfield starred on Broadway. This version is also theAmerican Version, and features subtle plot differences from Ibsen's original work, including the omittance of the shipwreck scene near the end, and theButtonmolder character playing a moderately larger role.[42]
In 1961,Hugh Leonard's version,The Passion of Peter Ginty, transferred the play to an Irish Civil War setting. It was staged atDublin's Gate Theatre.[43]
In 1969,Broadway impresarioJacques Levy (who had previously directed the first version ofOh! Calcutta!) commissionedThe Byrds'Roger McGuinn to write the music for a pop (or country-rock) version ofPeer Gynt, to be titledGene Tryp. The play was apparently never completed, although, as of 2006, McGuinn was preparing a version for release.[citation needed] Several songs from the abortive show appeared on the Byrds' albums of 1970 and 1971.[citation needed]
In March 1972Jerry Heymann's adaptation,[44] calledMr. Gynt, Inc., was performed atLa MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.[45]
In 1981,Houston Ballet presentedPeer Gynt as adapted by Artistic DirectorBen Stevenson, OBE.
In 1989,John Neumeier created a ballet "freely based on Ibsen's play", for whichAlfred Schnittke composed the score.
In 1998, theTrinity Repertory Company ofProvidence,Rhode Island commissionedDavid Henry Hwang and Swiss director Stephan Muller to do an adaptation ofPeer Gynt.
In 1998, playwrightRomulus Linney directed his adaptation of the play, entitledGint, at theTheatre for the New City in New York. This adaptation moved the play's action to 20th-century Appalachia and California.
In 2001, Rogaland Theatre produced an adaptation titledPeer Gynt-innen?, loosely translated as "Peer the Gyntess?". This was a one-act monologue performed by Marika Enstad.[46]
In 2007,St. John's Prep ofDanvers, Massachusetts, won theMHSDG Festival with their production starringBo Burnham.
In 2008, Theater in the Open inNewburyport, Massachusetts, produced a production ofPeer Gynt adapted and directed by Paul Wann and the company. Scott Smith, whose great-great-grandfather (Ole Bull) was one of the inspirations for the character, was cast as Gynt.
In 2009, a DVD was released of Heinz Spoerli's ballet, which he had created in 2007. This ballet uses mostly the Grieg music, but adds selections by other composers. Spoken excerpts from the play, in Norwegian, are also included.[47]
InIsrael, poet Dafna Eilat (he:דפנה אילת) composed a poem in Hebrew titled "Solveig", which she also set to music, its theme derived from the play and emphasizing the named character's boundless faithful love. It was performed byHava Alberstein (see[48]).
In 2011, Polarity Ensemble Theatre in Chicago presented another version of Robert Bly's translation of the play, in which Peer's mythic journey was envisioned as that of America itself, "a 150-year whirlwind tour of the American psyche."[49]
On an episode ofInside the Actors Studio,Elton John spontaneously composed a song based on a passage fromPeer Gynt.
The German a cappella metal bandVan Canto also made a theatrical adaptation of the story, naming itPeer Returns. The first episode that has been released called "A Storm to Come", appears on the band's albumBreak the Silence.
American composerMary McCarty Snow (1928–2012) composed music for a Texas Tech University production ofPeer Gynt.[50]
Will Eno's adaptation ofIbsen'sPeer Gynt, titledGnit, had its world premiere at the 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays in March 2013.[51]
In 2020, a new audio drama adaptation ofPeer Gynt by Colin Macnee, written in verse form with original music, was released[52] in podcast form.
In 2025, Vegard Vinge, Ida Müller, and Trond Reinholdtsen bring a new adaptation ofPeer Gynt at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz for 6 shows of 8 hours each.
There have been a number of film adaptations including:
Peer Gynt public domain audiobook atLibriVox| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
