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John Gabriel Borkman
John Gabriel Borkman
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Last copy!
Author: Henrik Ibsen Translated by: Charlotte Barslund Adapted by: Nicholas Wright Publisher: Nick Hern Books Format: Softcover # of Pages: 81 Pub. Date: 1997 ISBN-10: 1854593056 ISBN-13: 9781854593054
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About
the Play:
John Gabriel Borkman is a full-length drama by Henrik
Ibsen; in a new version by Nicholas Wright from a literal
translation by Charlotte Barslund. John Gabriel Borkman
is the all too timely tale of a man who was once wealthy, powerful
and revered, but is now disgraced and destitute after a financial
scandal and prison. His embittered wife plots for their son to
restore the family's reputation. Their lives are shattered once and
for all with the unexpected arrival of his wife's twin sister, with a
shocking proposal.
John Gabriel Borkman is the criminally convicted
financier of the title. A miner's son who has clawed his way to the
top, he has been in voluntary seclusion in an upstairs room since
enduring a 5-year prison sentence for embezzlement. As he paces
alone, bankrupt and disgraced, he is obsessed by dreams of his
comeback. Downstairs, his estranged wife Gunhild is placing her hopes
for the restoration of the family name in her adored son, Erhart. But
Erhart is the subject of another power struggle, between his aunt,
also his adoptive mother, Gunhild's twin sister Ella, who visits
unannounced. Ella's arrival to reclaim Erhart from his mother and
persuade him to take her name revives a titanic clash between the
sisters. Their conflict over Erhart is a replay of their former
struggle for the heart of Borkman, which Ella resoundingly lost when
he threw her over for the sake of his career. His wife, her twin
sister, his son and even Borkman himself are all trapped in the
suffocating atmosphere of this claustrophobic household. Their story,
like almost all the stories Ibsen tells, is a dark one, but shot
through with Ibsen's sly humour. As Borkman ventures out into the
snowy hills he finally learns the consequences of a love betrayed.
John Gabriel Borkman is Norwegian playwright Henrik
Ibsen's second-to-last play written in 1896. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, best known for painting The Scream, who designed an 1897 poster for the play, called this
drama of frozen desire "the most powerful winter landscape in
Scandinavian art". Nicholas Wright's sensitive English
version was first staged in 1996 at the National Theatre in London.
Cast: 5 female, 3 male
What people say:
"Richard Eyre's production is
perfectly complemented by Nicholas Wright's
idiomatic but unobtrusive translation." — The
Observer
About the Playwright:
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is the second most widely produced
dramatist in the world, eclipsed only by Shakespeare. He is revered
in Norway as its most famous author and a national symbol, even
though he spent much of his life abroad in Italy and Germany. He was
largely responsible for the rise of realism in the theatre. In works
that possess revelatory power Ibsen challenged his audiences to
question conventional morality and social conditions. Often
controversial, his works were deeply unsettling to many of his
Victorian contemporaries. He is now widely regarded as the "father
of modern drama" and one of the greatest dramatists who ever
lived.
Nicholas Wright is a South African-born British dramatist
who started in the theatre as a child actor. He went to England to
train at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and
joined the Old Vic touring company as an actor. After working in
repertory he became an assistant director in films and television. In
1969 he founded the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, where he was
responsible for presenting a radically influential program of new
plays. He has written many successful original plays, including the
Olivier Award-winning Vincent in Brixton. He has adapted such
theater classics as Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman.
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