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Peer Gyntby Euripedes
Opened at the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj
March 21, 2008.
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One of the great classics of Western theatre, Ibsen's masterpiece of poetic drama is at once a vast panorama of human life and at the same time a detailed investigation of one man's life, as a paradigm of modern existence and the never-ending need for self-determination.
Critic and translator Rolf Fjelde writes: "The entire phantasmagoria of the play is the story of an unmade choice, the choice of being what you can become, namely, that nature-transcending, contradiction-torn, purpose-evolving, suffering, striving and achieving self, which is truly man, and that spiritually anesthetized, fantasy-swathed, self-sufficing unborn thing which is a troll."
It is the contention of this production that even in this post-historical, post-modern, Internet age, the essential parameters of humankind's spiritual needs and existence – as Fjelde points them out – have not changed, and that Ibsen's great play is as relevant to our times as when it was written 145 years ago.
In David's production Peer, played as a young man by Ferenc Sinco, and as the mature and later old man by Zsolt Bogdan, moves in a kind of circularity from fantasy-fueled youth to deviously acquired riches to desperate old age, maintained throughout by the only constant in his life: Solveig's love. It is Solveig who sees through his layers of self-defending fantasies to the core that he looks for so desperately at the end of the play in the famous image of the onion.
The set, designed by Miriam Guretzky reflects the move in three acts from playland, to riches, to a kind of end-of-the-world barrenness, all lit by award-winning lighting designer Yaron Abulafia.
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| Young Peer and Young Solveig (Aniko Petho) |
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Peer & the Trolls |
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The Dance of the Troll Princess - Andrea Kali |
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| Solveig after Peer's departure |
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The death of Aase (Emoke) |
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| Mature Peer (Zsolt Bogdan) & the Businessmen (Robert Lacsko Vass, Attila Orban, Lehel Salat, Ervin Suks) |
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Peer the Prophet (Zsolt Bogdan) with a Anitra (Andrea Kali), the harem girls, Andrea Vindis, Enniko Gorgyjakab, Tunde Skovran) |
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| Peer & Begriefenfeldt (Molnar Levente) |
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Peer & Strange Passenger (Aron Dimeny) |
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Peer and the "onion-mask" |
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| The Button Molder (Joszef Biro) & Apprentices (Robert Lacsko Vass & Bolazs Bodolai) |
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Old Solveig (Csilla Albert) & Old Peer
reunited.
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Reviews
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