The Master Builder
at Theatre at UBC:
On the Subject
By Henrik Ibsen
A new adaptation and translated by Errol Durbach
Directed by Gerald Vanderwoude
A co-production with Yorick Theatre
TELUS Studio Theatre
Oct. 29-Nov. 7, 2009*
7:30 PM
* Please note: Monday, Nov. 2 and Tuesday, Nov. 3 feature Korean surtitles.
Halvard Solness, a brilliantly successful architect, has willed his unspoken desire into reality at every turn - but not without a price. Now burned out and at the end of his career he lives in fear that the next generation will rise up and cast him aside. Halvard’s encounter with a fiery-hearted young woman from his past, Hilde Wangel becomes a dramatic enactment of the forces animating, inspiring or destroying the artist in the drawn-out struggle to reconcile the prerogatives of aesthetics and of life. For this new adaptation Ibsen scholar Errol Durbach utilizes source material created by Ibsen including letters, manuscripts and poems.
“Ibsen’s tragic and epic masterwork: the forces of art, religion, sex and nature all converge to raise man up and knock him down." – New York Times
Errol Durbach: Errol Durbach (MA [Cantab.], PhD [London]) began teaching at UBC in 1967, he served as Head of Theatre from 1987 to 1994 and as Associate Dean of Arts between 1995 and 2000. His work on Henrik Ibsen has resulted in three volumes of critical analysis as well as an acclaimed adaptation of Peer Gynt, which earned the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Production in 2006/07. Durbach is a Professor Emeritus at UBC and author of Ibsen The Romantic, A Doll’s House: Ibsen’s Myth of Transformation plus many articles on modern, comparative, and Commonwealth drama.
Director Gerald Vanderwoude has directed over 40 productions in Vancouver, specializing in works by Samuel Beckett. Recent credits includes Bella Luna’s acclaimed productions of Futurisiti and The Return of Futuristi (co-directed with Susan C. Bertoia) and Beckett Cent, a centenary celebration of the work Samuel Beckett.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), the Norwegian playwright and poet known as the “father of modern drama,” is best known for Hedda Gabler, the epitome of a realistic play. Right behind is A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck and An Enemy of the People. Where these plays are all realistic and rife with symbolism, The Master Builder practically achieves allegorical heights. A taught psychological drama The Master Builder, along with his other late works Little Eyolf, When We Dead Awaken and John Gabriel Borkman it is known as one of his “symbolic” plays.
“Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build too. “ - Henrik Ibsen
The Master Builder features best selling novelist and veteran actor Chris Humphreys as the Master Builder (Halvard Solness) who joins fellow professional artists Trish Pattenden (Aline), UBC alumnus Nicholas Fontaine (Ragnar Brovik) and Maurice Verkaar (Dr. Herdal) along with Theatre at UBC BFA Acting candidate Fiona Mongillo (Hilde) and UBC student Odesssa Cadieux-Rey (Kaja). This production welcomes back to the stage - after a 35 year hiatus - Theatre at UBC’s talented Professor Emeritus Norman Young (Knut Brovik). The creative team includes UBC MFA Design Alumna Alison Green [costumes], BFA Design Candidate Ana Luisa Espinoza [Scenic Design] BFA Design Candidate Craig Alfredson [Lighting], BFA Design Candidate Christina Istrate [Sound], with BFA Production candidate Maria Fumano [Stage Manager].
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
A Freud of the Theatre
In the work of Ibsen as an aging writer we meet a number of people who are experiencing similar conflicts. Master builder Solness wrecks his family's lives in order to be regarded as an "artist" in his trade. And Hedda Gabler resolutely changes the fates of others in order to fulfill her own dream of freedom and independence.
In Ibsen's psychological analyses, he reveals the negative forces (he calls them "demons" and "trolls" in the minds of these people).
These examples of people who pursue their own goals, involuntarily trampling on the lives of others, are all drawn from the playwright's last decade of writing. In Ibsen's psychological analyses, he reveals the negative forces (he calls them "demons" and "trolls" in the minds of these people). His human characterization in these latter dramas is extremely complex - a common factor shared by all his last works, starting with "The Wild Duck" in 1884. In his last 15 years of writing, Ibsen developed his dialectical supremacy and his distinctive dramatic form - where realism, symbolism, and deep-digging psychological insights interact.
It is this phase of his work that has prompted people to call him a "Freud of the theater."
It is this phase of his work that has prompted people to call him a "Freud of the theater." Freud and many other psychologists have made use of Ibsen's human portraits as a basis for character analysis or even to illustrate their own theories. Especially well known is Freud's analysis of Rebekka West in Ibsen’s "Rosmersholm" (1886), a portrayal he discussed in 1916 together with other character types "who collapse under the weight of success." Freud saw Rebekka as a tragic victim of the Oedipus complex and an incestuous past. The analysis reveals perhaps more about Freud than about Ibsen. But Freud's influence, and the sway of psychoanalysis in general, have had a considerable effect on the way the Norwegian dramatist has been regarded.
Ibsen’s account of human life is from an acute social and conceptual perspective. Perhaps this is the essence of his art - that which turns it into existential drama exploring many facets of life. Ibsen's work as a writer represents a long poetic contemplation of people's need to live differently than they do. Thus there is always a deep undercurrent of desperation in his work. Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce called these portrayals of people who live in constant expectation and who are consumed by their pursuit of "something else" in life, "a desperate drama.”
Just before the moment of his death, Henrik Ibsen sat up in bed and said in a loud, clear voice: "On the contrary" ("Tvert imod"). The farewell message can serve as a summary of Ibsen´s personality. He frequently protested and disputed. Also in his writing he demonstrated scepticism towards established truths, raised doubts, objected and asked compromising questions.
"My main goal has been to depict people, human moods and human fates, on the basis of certain predominant social conditions and perceptions."
- Henrick Ibsen
Ibsen's Lyrical Prelude to The Master Builder
After his return to Norway, Ibsen's correspondence became very scant, and we have no letters dating from the period when he was at work on "The Master Builder". On the other hand, we possess a curious lyrical prelude to the play, which he put on paper on March 16, 1892. It is said to have been his habit, before setting to work on a play, to "crystallise in a poem the mood which then possessed him;" but the following is the only one of these keynote poems which has been published. Here it is with a literal translation:
DE SAD DER, DE TO--
De sad der, de to, i saa lunt et hus
ved host og i venterdage,
Saa braendte huset. Alt ligger i grus.
De to faar i asken rage.
For nede id en er et smykke gemt,--
et smykke, som aldrig kan braende.
Og leder de trofast, haender det nemt
at det findes af ham eller hende.
Men finder de end, brandlidte to,
det dyre, ildfaste smykke,--
aldrig han finder sin braendte tro,
han aldrig sin braendte lykke.
THEY SAT THERE, THE TWO--
They sat there, the two, in so cosy a house, through autumn
and winter days. Then the house burned down. Everything
lies in ruins. The two must grope among the ashes.
For among them is hidden a jewel--a jewel that never can burn.
And if they search faithfully, it may easily happen that he
or she may find it.
But even should they find it, the burnt-out two--find this
precious unburnable jewel--never will she find her burnt faith,
he never his burnt happiness.
This is the latest piece of Ibsen's verse that has been given to the World.
The New Ibsen Museum
During 2005 and spring 2006, the home of Henrik Ibsen and his wife Suzannah, was been restored and was re-opened to the public on the 23 May, exactly 100 years after Ibsen died. The new Ibsen Museum consists of two major parts: A new comprehensive exhibit featuring the playwright Ibsen´s life and work, and Ibsen´s private home, the apartment in which he spent his last 11 years.
A visit to Ibsen´s home takes us backstage and introduces us to his private life. The apartment has the original furniture as well as the original fixtures, décor and colours. The library, dining room and parlours are open to the public, accompanied by guides.
The study, where Ibsen wrote his two last plays, JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN and WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN are the crown jewel, but after the restoration of the floors, walls, ceilings and surfaces in the (320 meter squared) grand apartment and deposition of the original furniture from the two other Ibsen Museums in Norway, the authenticity of the other rooms are now close to impeccable.
The contrast between the style in Ibsen home and the modern visual expression in the new exhibit has a striking effect. Both the contemporary Ibsen and the historical Ibsen is now being shown in the Ibsen museum.
TELUS STUDIO THEATRE Oct. 28 – Nov. 7, 2009
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, UBC
The Master Builder, By Henrik Ibsen, In a new adaptation by Errol Durbach, Directed by Gerald Vanderwoude
Run: Oct. 28 – Nov. 7, 2009| Mon. - Sat at 7:30 p.m. | Opening Night: Oct. 29 | Tickets: Reg. $25/Senior $20/Student $15 | | $6 Preview: Oct. 28 | Mondays $5 for UBC Alumni | Box Office: 604.822.2678
Media Contact: Deb Pickman P: 604.319.7656 E: pickman@interchange.ubc.ca
