- Åse, a peasant’s widow.
- Peer Gynt, her son.
- Two old women with corn–sacks.
- Aslak, a smith.
- Wedding guests.
- A master cook.
- A fiddler.
- A man and a wife, newcomers to the district.
- Solveig and little Helga, their daughters.
- The farmer at Hægstad.
- Ingrid, his daughter.
- The bridegroom and his parents.
- Three alpine farm girls.
- A green-clad woman.
- The old man of the Dovre.
- Multiple troll-courtiers, troll-maidens and troll-urchins.
- A couple of witches.
- Brownies, nixies, gnomes, etc.
- An ugly brat.
- A voice in the darkness.
- Kari, a cottar’s wife.
- Master Cotton.
- Monsieur Ballon.
- Mr. von Eberkopf.
- Mr. Trumpeterstrale.
- Gentlemen on their travels.
- A thief.
- A receiver.
- Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin chief.
- Arabs.
- Female slaves.
- Dancing girls.
- The Memnon-statue.
- The Sphinx at Giza.
- Dr. Phil Begriffenfeldt, director of the madhouse at Cairo.
- Huhu, a language–reformer from the coast of Malabar.
- Hussein, an eastern Minister.
- A fellow with a royal mother.
- Several madmen and their keepers.
- A Norwegian skipper.
- His crew.
- A strange passenger.
- A pastor.
- A funeral party.
- A parish-officer.
- A button-moulder.
- A lean person.
| | |
''Peer Gynt'' can be considered as a bittersweet play about a Norwegian
Anti-hero . Peer Gynt is the son of the once highly-regarded Jon Gynt. Jon Gynt spent all his father's money on feasting and living high, until there was nothing left, and he had to go from his farm as a wandering salesman, leaving his wife and son behind in debt. Åse, the mother, wished to raise her son to wield and restore the lost fortune of his father, but Peer is soon to be considered useless for practical tasks, somewhat of a poet and a braggart, not unlike the Norwegian youngest son from the
Fairy Tales , the "
Ash Lad ", with whom he shares some characteristics.
As the play opens, Peer gives an account of a
Reindeer hunt that went awry, a famous theatrical scene generally known as "the Buckride". His mother scorns him for his vivid imagination, and taunts him because he spoiled his chances with the daughter of the richest farmer, Ingrid. Peer responds, and goes straight to the wedding, scheduled the following day, because he may get a chance with the bride anyway. His mother follows quickly to stop him from shaming himself completely.
At the wedding, Peer is taunted and laughed at by the other guests, especially the local smith, Aslak, who holds a grudge after a brawl somewhat earlier on. But in the same wedding, Peer meets a family of newcomers, from another valley, followers of
Hans Nielsen Hauge . He instantly notices the daughter, Solveig, and wants her for a dance. She refuses because of her mother, and even more when she learns who he is. His reputation has preceded him. She leaves him, and Peer starts drinking. When he hears that the bride has locked herself up (probably because of him), he acts on the news and runs away with the bride, and spends the night with her in the mountains.
This action has repercussions, and Peer is banished. As he wanders the mountains, his mother, Solveig and her father search for him. Meanwhile, Peer strays alone in the mountains. During his flight he meets three amorous dairy-maids who are waiting to be courted by trolls (really a folklore-motif from
Gudbrandsdalen ). He gets dead drunk with them and spends the next day alone with a severe hangover. He runs his head into a rock and swoons, and the rest of the second act takes place in Peer's dreams. He comes across a woman clad in green who turns out to be the daughter of the
Troll mountain king. Together they ride into the mountain hall, and the troll king gives Peer the choice of becoming a troll if Peer is to marry his daughter. Peer agrees to a number of issues, but withdraws in the end. He is then confronted with the fact that the green-clad woman is with child (mirroring Ibsen's own struggles with the child he had out of wedlock). Peer denies this; he hasn't even touched her, he claims, but the wise troll-king replies that he begot the child in his head as he desired his daughter. That is the troll-human way. Crucial for the plot and understanding of the play is the question asked by the troll-king: ''What is the difference between troll and man?''
The answer is: ''Man, be thyself. Troll, to thyself be - enough.''
Egoism is a typical troll-trait in this play. From then on, Peer has this as his motto, claiming as time passes to be himself, whatever that is. One of the most interesting characters is the Bøyg; a creature who has no real description. On the question "who are you?" The Bøyg answers: "myself". In time, Peer also takes the Bøyg's leading line as a motto: "Go around". The rest of his life, he "beats around the bush" instead of facing himself, or the truth.
When waking up, he is confronted by Helga, the sister of Solveig, who gives him food and regards from her sister. Peer replies by giving the girl a silver button for Solveig to keep, and asks that she will not forget him.
As an outlaw, Peer struggles to build his own cottage in the hills, and while he's doing this, Solveig turns up, insisting on living with him. She has made her choice, she says, and there is no returning for her. Peer delights and welcomes her, but as she enters the cabin, an elderly woman in a green dress appears with a limping boy at her side. This is the green-clad woman from the mountain hall. She has in a way cursed him, and he has to remember her, and all his previous sins, when facing Solveig. This Peer can't handle, and decides to leave, with the excuse: "I have got something heavy to fetch". He returns in time for his mother's death, and then sets off overseas.
Peer is away for many years, taking part in various occupations and playing various roles including that of a businessman engaged in enterprises on the coast of
Morocco . Here, he explains his view of life, and we learn that he is a businessman with dirty money on his hands. He has been a missionary, a
Slave -trader, and many other things. His friends rob him, and leave him alone on the shore. Then he finds some stolen
Bedouin gear, and in these clothes, he is hailed as a prophet by a local tribe. He tries to seduce Anitra, the chieftain's daughter, but she gets away, and leaves him. Then he decides to become an historian, and travels to
Egypt . He wanders through the desert, passes the
Memnon and the
Sphinx . As he addresses the Sphinx, believing him to be the Bøyg, he encounters the keeper of the local madhouse, himself out of his marbles, who regards Peer as the bringer of supreme wisdom. Peer comes to the madhouse, and understands that all of the patients live in their own worlds, being themselves to a degree that no one cares for anyone else. In his youth, Peer had dreamt of becoming an emperor. In this place, he's finally hailed as one - the emperor of the "self" . Peer despairs and calls for the "Keeper of all fools", i.e.
God .
Finally, on his way home as an old man, he is shipwrecked. Among those on board, he meets the Strange Passenger, considered by some scholars to be the ghost of , in my
Hope , in my
Love ". Peer screams and calls her mother, and hides himself in her lap. Solveig sings her lullaby for him, and we might presume he dies in this last scene of the play, although there are no stage directions or dialogue to indicate that he actually does.
Behind the corner, the button-moulder, who is sent by God, still waits, with the words: "Peer, we shall meet at the last cross-roads, and then we shall see if. .. I'll say no more".
The play focuses on the problems of choice, and of identity. "What is it to be one self", Peer asks in the end, and gets the answer: "to overcome one's self". Peer’s central conflict, and the most widespread conflict in the play, is Peer’s inability to be constrained versus a world that demands that of him. In a central scene, we find Peer pondering his identity, and picks an onion to look for the core of it. He declares himself an onion, and in the process finds nothing but layers. Who has he really been? Despite his capricious outward identity, Peer maintains that he stays true to the “Gyntish I.” There exists an intangible, natural something that shapes Peer’s assimilation of his surroundings in a uniquely “Gyntish” way. As with the core of the onion, this “true” Self cannot be exactly defined, but, within the parameters of its nonexistence, it exists nonetheless. Philosophically, the
Existential core of the play should be plain to see. Related to this theme, we also find the old
Riddle Of The Sphinx . Much of the later dialogue revolves around riddles, and Man's purpose. Many consider the plot to be based on the medieval
Morality Play , and Peer to be an
Everyman , who has to atone and make up for his life when unexpectedly facing
Death .
The themes from the play surfaced again in the book ''
The Neverending Story '' by
Michael Ende . Many topics and even scenes from the play are referred to in this book.
The historical Peer Gynt or Per Gynt, was in fact a fabled huntsman from
Gudbrandsdalen ,
Norway , in the
18th Century . Many of the stories from the play can be found in the collections of tales made by
Asbjørnsen And Moe . There, Per Gynt rescues the three dairy-maids from the trolls, two of whom are mentioned in the play, and he shoots the Bøyg, originally a gigantic, worm-shaped troll-being. He was generally known to tell tall-tales of his own achievements, a trait Peer in the play has inherited.
The "Buckride" is also from this source, but as Åse points out, it was originally Gudbrand Glesne from
Vågå who did the tour with the reindeer stag, and finally shot it.
''See also:
Peer Gynt Suites ''
Ibsen asked of four pieces each from the incidental music (Opus 46 and Opus 55), which became very popular as concert music. Only one of the ''sung'' parts of the incidental music ended up in these suites (the last part of 2nd suite, ''Solveig's Song'', the solo part now played by violin rather than sung, though the vocal version is sometimes substituted). (Originally, the second suite had a fifth number, ''The Dance of the Mountain King's Daughter'', but Grieg withdrew it.) Grieg himself declared that it was easier to make music "out of his own head" than strictly following suggestions made by Ibsen. For instance, Ibsen wanted music that would characterize the "international" friends in the fourth act, by melding the said national anthems (
Norwegian ,
Swedish ,
German ,
French and
English ). Reportedly, Grieg did not have the right temperament for this task.
Later the music of these suites, especially the ''Morgenstemning'' ("
Morning Mood ") starting the first suite, ''
In The Hall Of The Mountain King '', and the string lament ''Åse's Death'' reappeared in numerous arrangements,
Soundtrack s, etc.
In
1948 , the composer
Harald Sæverud made a new score for the
Nynorsk -production at "the Norwegian Theatre" (Det Norske Teatret) in
Oslo . Sæverud's music is considered anti-
Romantic , humorous, and rough. Sæverud accomplished the suggestion of Ibsen for the fourth act.
The first
U.S. production of ''Peer Gynt'' , in
1907 , starred the noted actor
Richard Mansfield , in one of his very last roles before his untimely death. In
1923 ,
Joseph Schildkraut played the role on
Broadway , in a
Theatre Guild production, featuring
Selena Royle ,
Helen Westley ,
Dudley Digges , and, before he entered films,
Edward G. Robinson . In
1944 , at the
Old Vic ,
Ralph Richardson played the role, surrounded by some of the greatest
British actors of the time in supporting or bit roles, among them
Sybil Thorndike as Aase, and
Laurence Olivier as the Button Moulder. In
1951 ,
John Garfield fulfilled his wish to star in a Broadway production, featuring
Mildred Dunnock as Aase. Sadly, this production was not a success, and is said by some to have contributed to Garfield's death at age 39.
On film, the seventeen-year-old
Charlton Heston starred as Peer in a silent, student-made, low budget film version of the play made in
1941 . ''Peer Gynt'', however, has never been given a full-blown treatment as a sound film in English on the motion picture screen, although there have been several television productions, and a sound film was produced in
German in
1934 .
The first American production of Peer Gynt was led under the musical direction of Peter Kurtz. Peter Kurtz, an accomplished violinist, having received his education both here and in Europe, and having studied under David Mannes in New York and under Senick (the master of Jan Kubelik) in Vienna. For a number of years he alternated with Mannes as the conductor of the Settlement orchestra. He has also been associated with the Damrosches and other leaders in the musical world.
In 1993,
Christopher Plummer starred in his own concert version of the play, with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Hartford, Connecticut. This was a new performing version and a collaboration of Mr. Plummer and Hartford Symphony Orchestra Music Director Michael Lankester. Plummer had long dreamed of starring in a fully-staged production of the play, but had been unable to. The 1993 production was not a fully-staged version, but rather a drastically condensed
Concert version, narrated by Plummer, who also played the title role, and accompanied by
Edvard Grieg 's complete
Incidental Music for the play. This version included a choir and vocal parts for soprano and mezzo-soprano. Mr. Plummer performed the concert version again in 1995 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with Mr. Lankester conducting. The 1995 production was broadcast on Canadian radio. It has never been presented on
Television . It has also never been released on
Compact Disc . In the 1990's Mr. Plummer and Mr. Lankester also collaborated on and performed similarly staged concert versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (with music by
Mendelssohn ) and Ivan the Terrible (an arrangement of a
Prokofiev film score with script for narrator). Among the three aforementioned Plummer/Lankester collaborations, all received live concert presentations and live radio broadcasts, but only Ivan the Terrible was released on CD.
In 2006,
Robert Wilson staged a co-production revival with both the National Theater of
Bergen and the Norwegian Theatre of
Oslo , Norway. Ann-Christin Rommen directed the actors in Norwegian (with English subtitles). This acclaimed production mixed both Wilson's minimalist (yet constantly moving) stage designs with fantastic technological effects to bring out the play's expansive potential. Furthermore they utilized state-of-the-art microphones, sound systems, and recorded acoustic and electronic music to bring clarity to the complex and shifting action and dialogue. From April 11 through the 16th, they performed at the
Brooklyn Academy Of Music 's Howard Gilman Opera House.
In 1969,
Broadway impresario
Jacques Levy (who had previously directed the first version of ''
Oh! Calcutta! '') commissioned
The Byrds '
Roger McGuinn to write the music for pop (or country-rock) version of ''Peer Gynt'', to be titled ''
Gene Tryp ''. The play was apparently never completed, although McGuinn is currently (as of 2006) preparing a version for release. Several songs from the abortive show appeared on the Byrds' albums of 1970 and 1971.
In 1985-1987
John Neumeier wrote a ballet "freely based on Ibsen's play", for which
Alfred Schnittke composed the score.
In 1998, the
Trinity Repertory Company of Providence, Rhode Island commissioned
David Henry Hwang and Swiss director Stephan Muller to do an adaptation of ''Peer Gynt.''
In 2001 a group of electronica music called "
Operatica " made a new version of the popular song from ''Peer Gynt'', "Solveig's Song", which is rearranged and performed in English.
On July 6th, 2007, under direction of Peter te Nuyl and Jac van Steen, Peer Gynt was performed at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK and Lichfield Catherdral as part of the Lichfield Festival. The adaption was in English and Norweigan and utilised Chetham's Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Chetham's Chorus.
On August 10, 2007, a world-premiere adaptation of Peer Gynt - conceived of by David Maggs and created by Min Tze Wu- was performed in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, as part of the Gros Morne Summer Music Festival. It was recorded live by CBC Radio 2. This show combined musical selections from Peer Gynt with the folk music of Newfoundland and Labrador and the piano music of Edvard Grieg. The performance featured Maggs as pianist and Wu playing the fiddle, as well as Jem Moore alternating on the bodhran and whistles, Diederik van Dijk doing guitar and vocals, Charlie Payne on accordion, and Mike Payne narrating the Peer Gynt story.
From January 12, 2008 to March 2, 2008, the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota will be staging Peer Gynt. It will be directed by Tim Carroll. For information, see: http://www.guthrietheater.org/.
