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The Neo-Futurists’ production of
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| ABOUT THE PLAY |
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Brush Up Your Ibsen
Not an Ibsen buff? Have no fear, The Last Two Minutes… is sure to delight Ibsen authorities and neophytes alike. The show’s title is the subject matter—it is about the last two minutes of each of the twenty-six plays, not simply re-enacting the last two minutes of each. Segments range from ten seconds to five minutes, and comedy is the primary order of the day. But in case you’re still yearning for some inside Ibsen info, here is a primer on some of his most popular works:
- Peer Gynt (1867) is the son of the once rich and highly regarded Jon Gynt, who became a drunkard and lost all his money, leaving Peer and his mother to live in poverty. Though Peer wants to restore his family, he too is a drifter and a braggart, and loses himself to a variety of misadventures through several countries, making and losing money and gaining fortune at others' expense. When finally on his way home as an old man he is shipwrecked, but ultimately finds salvation in the love of Solveig, who has been waiting for him since he left.
- A Doll’s House (1879) was highly controversial when first published, due to its harsh criticism of Victorian marriage norms. When Nora learns that her husband is more concerned with his own reputation than her love for him, her illusions are destroyed and she decides she must leave her husband, children, and home in search of a wider world. Considered scandalous by Victorians, German theatres refused to present the play until Ibsen wrote an alternate ending in which Nora reconsiders and gives her husband a second chance.
- Ghosts (1881) is a scathing commentary on Victorian morality, in which a widow reveals to her pastor that her husband (whom the pastor had advised her to marry, despite his philandering) continued his cheating ways right up until his death, and the result is that her son is syphilitic. Though the mention of venereal disease was scandalous in and of itself, even more outrageous was the idea that fulfilling one's duty and following society’s ideals did not always lead to a noble life.
- An Enemy of the People (1882) challenged the Victorian notion of community as a noble institution. When a doctor discovers that a public bath is contaminated and spreading disease, instead of being lauded for his discovery he is declared the “enemy” and is completely ostracized. The community’s unwillingness to face reality will inevitably lead to disaster, and a primary message of the play is that the individual who takes a stand is more often right than the masses, who are portrayed as ignorant and sheeplike.
- The Wild Duck (1884) tells the story of Gregers Werle, a young man “in pursuit of the absolute truth.” His pursuit leads him to discover many dark secrets behind his friend Hjalmer’s apparently happy home, yet Gregers himself never says what he thinks but speaks in innuendo and coded phrases. A mistaken interpretation of Gregers’ advice leads Hjalmer’s wife to suicide, and only too late do Hjalmar and Gregers realize that the absolute truth is sometimes too much for the human heart to bear.
- Hedda Gabler (1890) has just returned from her honeymoon with Jorgen Tesman, and it quickly becomes clear that Hedda will soon be bored to tears with her reliable but uninteresting husband. When a former lover of Hedda’s returns to town and rivals Jorgen for a professorship at the university, their lives are thrown into disarray. Hedda’s desperate attempts to secure her and her husband’s future lead to her undoing. Hedda Gabbler is often considered one of the greatest dramatic female roles in the theater.
Is Ibsen Obsolete?
One might wonder whether today’s audiences have an interest in a Norwegian playwright who died over 100 years ago. A quick look at the facts shows that Ibsen’s work—and the public’s interest in it—indeed lives on.
- The Sydney Theatre Company’s 2006 production of Hedda Gabbler, with Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett in the title role, was the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s best-selling production in a decade.
- From January to June 2006, the Ibsen.net website received over eight million hits. The site received over one million hits and 100,000 visits from 123 different countries in January alone.
- At the 2005 New York International Fringe Festival, Henrik Ibsen was the only writer who served as inspiration for two productions: The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen and Fucking Ibsen Takes Time (no other writer had more than one). The Last Two Minutes was one of the biggest hits of the festival, with its five performances completely sold out.
- The online resource Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) lists one hundred twenty-eight motion picture and television movies based on Ibsen’s plays, including
U.S.
films Hedda Gabbler (2004) and Ghosts (1997).
- As of July, at least seventy-four Ibsen productions had opened around the world in 2006, with at least sixty-four additional productions scheduled to open by the end of the year. Thirteen of those productions are in the
United States
, with the remainder spread across forty-two other countries and six continents.
- The most recent Broadway production of A Doll’s House (1997) garnered four Tony Awards (Best Revival of a Play, Best Director of a Play, Best Actress in a Play and Best Featured Actor in a Play) and two Drama Desk Awards (Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Actress in a Play).
What is a Neo-Futurist?
The Neo-Futurists are a collective of writer/director/performers who strive to create interactive, highly personal, emotionally and intellectually challenging art for the general public. Though Neo-Futurism draws inspiration from a variety of influences, its namesake is Futurism—an international art movement founded in
Italy
in 1909 that exalted speed, brevity, dynamism, and the explosion of preconceived notions. Today the Neo-Futurists continue to expose and explore new artistic territory, and are dedicated to:
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strengthening the bond between performer and audience,presenting stories and ideas as directly as possible,embracing audience interaction and interweaving elements of chance and change that keep the performance alive, and influencing the widest audience possible by keeping ticket prices affordable and productions intellectually and emotionally challenging yet accessible.
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A (VERY) Quick History of The Neo-Futurists
The Neo-Futurists first appeared on
Chicago
’s theatre scene in 1988 with Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Conceived and directed by Greg Allen, Too Much Light was written and performed with an eight-person ensemble and billed as "an ever-changing attempt to perform 30 Plays in 60 Minutes." The late-night show gained momentum with an audience of young, adventurous theatergoers, and marked its first sold-out performance on June 10, 1989. This run of sold-out shows lasted over two years, and the Neo-Futurists were finally able to open their own space, aptly named “The Neo-Futurarium,” in February 1992.
With their new theater as home base, The Neo-Futurists expanded into even greater artistic productivity with an Off-Broadway debut and tours to
New York
,
Seattle
and
San Francisco
in 1993, and a performance at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in 1995. As the late-night Too Much Light continued to grow in popularity, the Neo-Futurists began developing and performing “prime-time” pieces as well. Their greatest hit to date was an original adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial, simply called K. Premiering in 1996, K eventually toured to
New York
where Greg Allen won the Best Director Award at the New York International Fringe Festival.
The decade that followed saw an outpouring of Neo-Futurist artistic activity, public honors, and company expansion. Facilities were improved, full-time staff positions were added, and a New York-based branch of Neo-Futurists was established. The Neo-Futurists have appeared on National Public Radio's This American Life, All Things Considered and Anthem, and have been repeatedly featured on WTTW's Wild
Chicago
! and Art Beat. Their work has been commissioned by the Humana Festival at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, the Arts Club of Chicago, PBS, and The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and has even been turned into state-of-the-art computer animation by an Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
With past hits including the aforementioned K; Connor Kalista and Greg Allen's collaboration Crime & Punishment: A (mis)Guided Environmental Tour With Literary Pretensions; Rachel Claff's Curious Beautiful, which turned the paintings of Vermeer into an environmental installation piece; and The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett... a collaboration with Theater Oobleck that won an Overall Excellence Award for Comedy at the New York International Fringe Festival, the Neo-Futurists are no strangers to looking at established classics in a whole new light. Join the Neo-Futurists at Northight as they apply their unique brand of theatre to Henrik Ibsen and see why The Last Two Minutes… are often the best!
Drawn from “A Quick History of the Neo-Futurists” at www.neofuturists.org |
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