New version of Ibsen’s “When We Dead Awaken” runs 16 November to 17 December 2011
Henrik Ibsen
When We Dead Awaken is the last play Ibsen wrote before his death in 1906. Rarely performed, and yet a haunting piece, the play is a celebration of life and love.
Written and first performed in 1899, When We Dead Awaken is set within a mythical Nordic landscape. In this version, Judgement Day offers an explicit self-portrait of Ibsen as an aging artist: restless with his art, his homeland and his married life.
The central character, the sculptor Rubek, exhibits all the extraordinary passion and drive that was an essential part of Ibsen’s own creative character. Whilst holidaying with his young wife, Rubek encounters his muse: a woman that he loved and left a lifetime ago. What follows is a heartfelt examination of how Rubek has used these two. Over a series of heated encounters, the entire scroll of Rubek’s life is unrolled in Ibsen’s final – and most autobiographical – exploration of what it means to love and to be loved.
Mike Poulton is one of Britain’s foremost translators and adaptors of classic plays. Most recently, he won praise for his adaptation of Schiller’s Luise Miller at the Donmar Warehouse.
More information at: www.the-print-room.org For tickets, call 08444 77 1000 / 020 7221 6036
The Print Room is at 34 Hereford Road, London, W2 5AJ
