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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Chasing Ibsen
Verdict: Chasing rainbows
Chasing Ibsen by writer Caroline Summerfield - described as a psychological drama - is much inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, and the paintings of Edvard Munch.
Chasing Ibsen has three female protagonists, Lizzie, Sue and Maggie – described in the programme as ‘modern day women, operating in today’s commercial world’. Three white cubes, a white hanging window-frame, a stack of white hat-boxes, littered but ordered designer-bags of rich colour, and a disturbing scenic representation of The Scream by Edvard Munch (1863–1944) provide the backcloth of Lizzie’s Northern home.
Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) published A Doll’s House in 1879 – a social drama on marriage. When the central character Nora shuts the door behind her at the end of the play, she opens wide the gate of life for women. Nora proclaims the revolutionary message that only perfect freedom and communication - without lies and shame, and free from the bondage of duty - make a true bond between man and woman.
If writer Caroline Summerfield intended to look at social life and duty within the sacred institution of the home - through the character of Lizzie in her gilded cage – then sadly Chasing Ibsen falls short.
Chasing Ibsen uses the untimely death of Lizzie’s husband and the surrounding circumstances to ask by which laws Lizzie and her two intimate friends are to be judged.
Ibsen himself wrote - as he started A Doll’s House - ‘There are two kinds of moral laws, two kinds of conscience, one for men and one, quite different, for women. They don’t understand one another; but in practical life, woman is judged by masculine law, as though she weren’t a woman but a man.’ (1898)* A problem with Chasing Ibsen is how times have changed.
Chasing Ibsen’s characters are superficial, without a grounding of human hardship or suffering. There seems little empathy or heart, either in characterisation or the relationships that Lizzie, Sue and Maggie experience. The play provides no history as to why these three find infinity in their friendship - but seem merely devices to support the structure of the play rather than its gut.
Events reveal the deceit and dishonesty in the trio’s relationship - but these are often familiar, delivered in clichéd mutterings, void of real emotion.
Lizzie, it is suggested, is successful and intelligent, exuding superiority over others. Stephanie Schonfield gives an assured - to the point of seeming contrived - portrayal of a woman questioning her role as wife. Her final breakdown - surely the dramatic metaphor of The Scream - amounts to nothing more than a technical exercise. Lorraine Arnold creates a highly nervous Maggie.
There are some problems with direction (by Diana Hillier and assistant director Lizzie Wiggs). Too often there is ‘mug’ acting - particularly in Lorraine Arnold’s characterisation of Maggie - which denies a sense of naturalism. An example is Maggie’s continuous lighting of cigarettes, which tonight makes the audience visibly uncomfortable.
Often Sue (Laurie Hagen)’s attention seems misguided - and in many scenes she is invisible, given the technical wall which prevents the audience from good sight lines.
A script difficulty is that Sue - a hairdresser, written as vacuous - is not readily believable. The character is a comic device which fails to entertain, and is difficult to take seriously: at one moment Sue wonders if A Dolls House is ‘a play 'bout dolls’, but then mentions Nora as heroine. If the writer feels that locating the action in a Northern town, with Northern accents, will provide the audience with wisdom and wit, unfortunately this is not the case.
Cast Credits: Lorraine Arnold - Maggie. Laurie Hagen - Sue. Stephanie Schonfield - Lizzie.
Company Credits: Writer - Caroline Summerfield. Director - Diana Hillier. Lighting & Sound Design - Phil S Hunter. Assistant Director - Lizzie Wiggs. Scenic Artist - Emily Juniper. Company - Eugenie Productions. Venue: Artistic Director - Penny Horner.
END
*1878. Quoted in - Meyer, Michael 1971. Henrik Ibsen: The Farewell to Poetry 1864-1882 London. Rupert Hart-Davis. p 254.
(c) Mike Miller 2005
reviewed 11 April 05 / Jermyn Street Theatre.
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
