Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman was beautifully performed. I saw it BAM on 12 January. The play itself was predictably desolate and depressing; but the actors were excellent. Fiona Shaw, certainly, in a difficult role of Gunhild (so unlikeable a character) was superb but I thought Lindsay Duncan as Emma was particularly noteworthy. Alan Rickman did not have the megalomaniac power needed to create the character of Borkman, perhaps too defeated in Act 2, in the upstairs apartment where he is cooped up. The set was covered with banks of snow as if they hauled them from outside the theater. Most of all, I was reminded that theater is above all recitation.
01/25/11
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Kaori,
ReplyDeleteWhat do mean when you say theater is above all recitation? That it is the most important element? More important than action or the text itself?
By recitation, I mean vocal delivery of lines, which comprises the text and the narrative it exposes, as opposed to spectacle. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.
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