‘Peer Gynt' at Ilam tonight

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 11

‘Peer Gynt' at Ilam tonight

One of the year’s biggest productions, an adaption of Ibsen’s play, “Peer Gynt,” is to open tonight in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre, Ilam, for a season of five nights. The adaptation has been done by staff and students of the Secondary Division of the Christchurch Teachers’ College, and the performance is by the Secondary Division Drama Club, supplemented by fourth-form pupils from Bumside High School. Production and musical direction GIRAUDOUX PLAY.— Douglas Clarke, Peter Unverricht and Catherine Mowbray in a scene from “The Enchanted.”

are by Don McAra and Guy Jansen. The play is an early one in the Ibsen Canon, and is more often thought of through its association with Greig’s music. But Ibsen was known not to be happy with the music, however pleasant it may be for other occasions, and this has led members of the college music department to compose their own pieces in a range of styles, from plain song to “environmental”. taped collages. In some cases Grieg’s music has been used as a springboard for rhythmic ideas, but Grieg himself is reserved for the interval. The visual effects are supplied from an experiment by the college fine arts group earlier this year, and from cartoons and slides made specially for the show. These involve projections through various media, and a handpainted animated film. About 30 masks have been made for the trolls who confront Peer Gynt in the Norwegian scenes. The play is a condensation to two and a half hours of the original, which must have run for more than four hours. Epic and picturesque, the story follows the fortunes of a Norwegian youth whose fantastic lies and far-fetched dreaming lead him into all sorts of difficulties and romantic posturings. After a Lochinvar-like escapade with a village bride, Peer is outlawed in the Ronde Mountains, where he meets various human and sub-human creatures and is condemned by them into living a life cut off from real human contact. After he flees to become slave trader and millionaire he is deserted by some colleagues in the Sahara Desert; where he meets Anitra, a desert wench, and is done out of his money. Always claiming to be one better than others, and having kingly aspirations, he ends up Emperor of Self, beside himself, in a Cairo asylum. As an embittered old man he returns to Norway to try to pick up the traces, but only at the end of the play, faced with the emptiness of his escapades, does he find any reason for his existence. The play is part of the Secondary Division’s effort to send out teachers who will be interested in promoting in schools, drama which draws from the resources of various departments within the school. Time in this case has prevented the construction of the whole show from improvisation, but the cast have helped in the making of a viable text