The first London reviews of The Lady of the Sea have just been published.
Dave Hollander from THE STAGE called the show “A mesmeric performance. Beautifully conceived bilingual update of Ibsen’s drama about loss and longing, with a mesmeric central performance.”
Tom Wicker from TIME OUT said “The Norwegians show us how Ibsen ought to be done with this powerful bilingual revival.“
“The cast are superb and work as a finely tuned machine.” Cindy Marcolina from BROADWAY WORLD.
See REVIEWS page for the full reviews.
On Oslo’s Victoria Terrasse there’s a white door marked 108. Behind it was once an office in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but before that, late in the 19th century, these rooms were occupied by a figure who has done more for Norway’s reputation abroad than all of its foreign ministers put together.
This was the apartment of Henrik Ibsen, generally regarded as the second-greatest playwright ever, and the second most-performed dramatist in the world. In both these criteria he is bested only by Shakespeare.
Ibsen’s living quarters have now become a significant venue in his thriving theatrical afterlife. For a week in January, two of Norway’s leading classical actors – Kåre Conradi and Pia Tjelta – were rehearsing here with a cast of Norwegian and UK-based actors for a bilingual production of Ibsen’s 1888 play The Lady from the Sea, which premieres this week in London.
[ VIEW FULL ARTICLE ]The Norwegian Ibsen Company & Print Room at the Coronet present
The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen
In a new version by Mari Vatne Kjeldstadli
Based on the translation by May-Brit Akerholt
Directed by Marit Moum Aune
The Print Room at the Coronet are joining forces with the Norwegian Ibsen Company for a new production of Henrik Ibsen’s timeless story of self-determination. With creative teams from UK and Norway, this new staging brings with it a deep connection to the Norwegian culture in which Ibsen lived.
“Exhilarating… this is Ibsen with the gloves off”
The Guardian on the National Theatre of Norway’s Little Eyolf at the Print Room
Ellida, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter, was born where the fjord meets the ocean. Now trapped in a difficult marriage to a British doctor, Ellida longs for the open sea. Will the return of a former lover offer her a real choice?
A story of self-determination, modern families, loving other people’s children, and always looking for the perfect relationship, The Lady from the Sea was shocking in its challenge of societal norms when it premiered in 1889.
To mark the 130th anniversary of The Lady from the Sea, we’re thrilled to be collaborating with the Norwegian Ibsen Company for this new staging, which brings with it a deep connection to the Norwegian culture in which Ibsen lived: from its close relationship with nature, to the effect of the midnight sun on its inhabitants in the far north.
With performers and creatives from both UK and Norway, The Lady from the Sea follows the Print Room’s hugely successful 2018 collaboration with National Theatre of Norway and in co-operation with The Norwegian Ibsen Company, Little Eyolf, with many of the team returning for this shattering new production.
Both Norwegian and English will be spoken during the performance, with English surtitles for the Norwegian sections.
8 February to 9 March 2019
Little Eyolf review – exhilarating Ibsen from Norway’s National Theatre
“It is the fashion these days to strip Ibsen to the bone. This exhilarating production from Norway’s National Theatre – played in Norwegian with surtitles – is very much in the modern mode. It runs, like Richard Eyre’s 2015 Almeida version, for a brisk 85 minutes, and is played in modern dress with mostly bare feet and minimal furniture. It leaves you, as all good Ibsen should, quietly shattered.
Guilt is the prevailing theme as Rita and Alfred Allmers try to repair a marriage already haunted by the accident that happened to their boy, Eyolf, when they were preoccupied in making love. What is especially striking about Sofia Jupither’s production is its realisation of Ibsen’s sexual candour. Pia Tjelta’s Rita can hardly keep her hands off Kåre Conradi’s withdrawn Alfred as he returns from a six-week walking tour in the mountains and unbuttons his shirt with frenzy. Alfred’s passion for his half-sister, Asta, is more decorously expressed but no less intense. The most shocking revelation comes when we learn that Alfred, who used to call Asta “Little Eyolf”, cried out that name at a moment of orgasm with his wife. Written in 1894, the play emerges as both breathtakingly honest and the ancestor of soul-baring modern dramas by Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee.
Jupither’s production also brings out Ibsen’s grim humour. When Tjelta’s superb Rita, a Lady Macbeth of the fjords, announces that she intends to devote herself to looking after neglected children, one’s initial response is that the police should be alerted. Conradi captures perfectly Alfred’s self-regarding intellectualism, and there is fine support from Ine Jansen as an anguished Asta and from Andrine Sæther, who turns the symbolic figure of the Rat-Wife, sensing something troublesome gnawing away in the house, into a hippy Pied Piper. This is Ibsen with the gloves off, and the only sadness is that the production was given a bare three-night run. Someone should invite this company back to give us an extended Ibsen season.”
**** Michael Billington, The Guardian (20 April 2018)
The Norwegian Ibsen Company has started a co-operation with The Print Room theatre Coronet in Notting Hill, London. The first production will be a visit from The National Theatre of Norway. This guest performance is funded by the InterNational Foundation.
This production of Little Eyolf has been on the repertoire of The National Theatre of Norway for three years to amazing reviews. The Norwegian Ibsen Company’s artistic director Kåre Conradi is a lifetime employee at The National Theatre of Norway and plays Alfred Almers opposite Pia Tjelta as Rita Almers. Tjelta is these days shooting the series BECK in Sweden where she stars opposite Kristoffer Hivju (Game of Thrones).
The visit of this powerful production to The Print Room also marks the beginning of a working relationship between The Print Room Coronet and The Norwegian Ibsen Company. Artistic Director Kåre Conradi has said at several occasions that The Coronet has many similarities to The National Theatre of Norway. The much needed yet very cool choice of bringing the Coronet stage up to the level of first balcony is something he would have loved to experience at The National Theatre of Norway if an opportunity was given. It brings an incredible intimacy into the grand atmosphere of a big classic theatre house.
The co-production from Norway also stars Andrine Sæther, John Emil Jørgensrud and Ine Jansen. Directed by the award winning director Sofia Jupither.
Thursday 19 to Saturday 21 April 2018. BOOK NOW! The Thursday performance is already SOLD OUT.
Print Room at the Coronet, 103 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3LB.
Pia Tjelta and Kåre Conradi are returning to The National Theatre of Norway in Little Eyolf.
The play opens on the 29th August 2017.
[ see video ]Three Peer Gynt’s come together in a rare performance at Gålå, the home of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt in Gudbrandsdalen.
This is a co-production between Peer Gynt – Gålå and The Norwegian Ibsen Company.
Three Peer Gynt’s come together in a rare performance at Gålå, the home of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt in Gudbrandsdalen.
This is a co-production between Peer Gynt – Gålå and The Norwegian Ibsen Company.
This famous outdoor arena visited by 3,000 audience members a day welcomes three of Norway’s most celebrated actors. Dennis Storhøi, Kåre Conradi and Norway’s grand old man, Toralv Maurstad have all played Peer Gynt for many years and in different ways have Peer shaped their lives.
Artistic Director Kåre Conradi just won The Hedda Award 2016 (Norway’s equivalent to Olivier Award) for best actor in the part of Richard III at The National Theatre of Norway.
Artistic Director Kåre Conradi is to star as Edward IV in Trevor Nunn’s production of The Wars of the Roses at the Rose Theatre Kingston.
Epic, enthralling, extraordinary. The Rose stage will be transformed into a battleground for The Wars of the Roses, a gripping distillation of four of Shakespeare’s history plays, directed by Trevor Nunn, one of the world’s leading Shakespearean directors. Kåre will be joined on stage by Joely Richardson, Rufus Hound, Robert Sheehan, Oliver Cotton, Laurence Spellman and Susan Tracy.
A spectacular theatrical event not seen since it was first produced at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 by Peter Hall & John Barton, The Wars of the Roses is a trilogy of plays about one of the most tumultuous and intriguing periods of British history – the 15th century conflict between the House of York and the House of Lancaster for the throne of England.
Through these plays Shakespeare examines the very essence of human conflict. A tale of feuding families, murderous kings and adulterous queens, scheming and betrayal, revolts and battles, The Wars of the Roses chronicles the final struggle for power in medieval England.