>>PREVIEW
PEOPLE DON’T DO SUCH THINGS: THE IBSEN PROJECT
Theatre Utopia House Collective
Runs until June 10
Pumphouse Theatres
He has shaped generations of playwrights, and his plays are performed second only to Shakespeare. He was an unflinching writer who broke social convention by challenging the norms of his time. Yet it would seem to some that 100 years after his death, although an iconic figure, Henrick Ibsen might be overshadowed by the legacy of his own creations.
"Anyone who studies theatre studies Ibsen," says Dawn L. Ford, artistic director of Theatre Utopia House Collective. "Ibsen is an icon of the theatre industry."
However, Ford adds that while Ibsen’s plays may be well studied, little of the man beyond his work is actually known. With this in mind, Theatre Utopia House Collective’s final presentation this season, People Don’t Do Such Things: The Ibsen Project, explores what it means to leave behind work that continues to breathe life and have significance to an audience long after you, the creator, have disappeared.
"Wouldn’t they (the artist) feel a little left out, to find their creations to be bigger and better than they are?" Ford asks.
The Ibsen Project investigates what would happen if Ibsen’s creations realized their own existence beyond that of the stage, discovering that while the father who created them has died, they will live forever through his plays.
"We have to remember that these characters don’t exist in reality, so they can do whatever they want," says Ford. "So they do a lot of strange things."
Rather than copy Ibsen’s poetic, naturalistic style of writing, the Collective chose to use modern language and focus on what they were trying to explore, as opposed to keeping with what an Ibsen play typically should be.
"There is absolutely nothing naturalistic about our play," says Ford. "We’ve put it all into this kind of performance art spectacle that’s quite different from an Ibsen play."
In order to know what an Ibsen play should be, the Collective made sure they did their homework. Researching what was known about the man, as well as reading many of his plays, the actors chose their own characters based on which ones they most strongly identified with.
Featuring characters from Hedda Gabbler, A Doll’s House, Little Eyolf, Peer Gynt and, finally, Ibsen himself, the actors explore the notion of art surpassing life by blending their own experiences with that of their chosen character.
"The characters live today in our world," says Ford. "It becomes this real melding of both the actor’s and character’s personalities."
What does Ford think Ibsen would think about the piece?
"In his later years he wasn’t a very nice man," she says. "This is the Ibsen we are portraying. I don’t think he’d like it very much. I don’t think he would want to see himself this clearly." |
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