Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt
Royal Shakespeare Company | March to September 2020 [postponed due to Covid]
Director: Barbara Frey
In a world where identity is commodity and greed is God, what really is the price we pay for individual freedom?
Peer Gynt was scheduled to run in the Swan Theatre from 1 May to 23 September 2020, but has been cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. We are continuing to support the artists to explore the possibility of the Projekt Europa plays being performed elsewhere in the future.
Hungry and restless, Peer Gynt is addicted to instant gratification and driven by an increasingly desperate search for meaning. But in a world where identity is commodity and greed is God, what really is the price we pay for individual freedom?
Acclaimed Swiss director Barbara Frey reimagines Ibsen’s epic European myth for the 21st century. This radical adaptation explores the achingly human questions we all grapple with today.
Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen
From a translation by John Northam
Adapted by Barbara Frey and Judith Gerstenberg
Directed by Barbara Frey
Swan Theatre, 1 May – 23 September 2020
Press night: Tuesday 12 May 2020, 7pm
The company comprises sixteen actors and includes: Nandi Bhebhe, Hannah Bristow, Jacqui Dubois, Rina Fatania, Sandy Foster, Georgia Frost, Richard Hope, Miles Jovian, Richard Katz, Robert Luckay, David Luque, Barbara Marten, Ako Mitchell, Chris New, Bathsheba Piepe and Brigid Zengeni.
PROJEKT EUROPA is co-curated by RSC Associate Artist Maria Åberg, and Judith Gerstenberg. Maria will direct Europeana, following her acclaimed productions of The Duchess of Malfi in 2018 and Doctor Faustus in 2016. Born in Hamburg, Judith has worked as a dramaturg in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Maria and Judith will be joined by a number of other leading European theatre artists for the season, including Barbara Frey, who directs Peer Gynt and Tiago Rodrigues, who directs Blindness and Seeing.
Maria Åberg said: “From directors to designers, costume designers to dramaturgs, composers to video designers, PROJEKT EUROPA offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to see world class European theatre, made in Stratford. I’m hoping the season will excite and inspire, spark curiosity and debate, and that we can truly offer our Stratford audience the very best of European theatre making right now. The majority of the artists involved are making work for a British audience for the very first time, so the season really does present a unique opportunity to experience a genuine theatrical experiment at a landmark moment in our shared history.”
PROJEKT EUROPA also includes Voices from The Edges of Europe, a series of newly commissioned monologues from prominent European writers to be presented in The Other Place; Decameron 2020, a unique collaboration between the RSC’s Next Generation ACT young company and Mattias Andersson, one of Europe’s most exciting directors of theatre for young people; and a rich and varied feast of talks, debates, exhibitions and events, all designed to explore, interrogate and celebrate our relationship with Europe.
Peer Gynt, a radical new staging of Ibsen’s epic European myth for the 21st century will follow from 1 May to 23 September 2020. The production is directed by Barbara Frey, prominent European director and Artistic Director designate for the Ruhrtriennale and adapted by Barbara Frey and Judith Gerstenberg from a translation by John Northam.
Richard Katz plays Peer Gynt, and Barbara Marten plays Aase.
Company: Jacqui Dubois, Rina Fatania, Sandy Foster, Richard Katz, Robert Luckay, David Luque, Barbara Marten, Ako Mitchell, Chris New and Bathsheba Piepe.
Joining Barbara Frey on the creative team are: Bettina Meyer (Designer), Bettina Munzer (Costume Designer), Kai Fischer(Lighting), Josh Sneesby and Gemma Storr (Music), Carolyn Downing (Sound) and Judith Gerstenberg (Dramaturg), Emily Louizou (Assistant Director).
