HOW should a director approach a classic? Offer a radical update or respect the period and setting of the original? Both methods may be equally valid, as proved by two current revivals of Ibsen and Chekhov, which are poles apart yet equally spectacular.
Ibsen's An Enemy Of The People, now at the Duke of York's in a production by Thomas Ostermeier, is a play that positively invites rebooting. First staged in 1883, it shows Dr Stockmann, the medical officer of a small spa town, discovering that the baths on which the place's livelihood depends are toxic. He expects to be hailed as a hero. Instead, he is condemned by the local mayor, who happens to be his brother, and finds his initial champions in the press turning against him. It is a classic study of how the whistleblower is vilified when he threatens a community's wealth and is the prototype of many plays and films, including Steven Spielberg's Jaws.
Herr Ostermeier, who originally staged the production in German and now supervises the English version, doesn't mess about. He places the action in today's world: Matt Smith's Dr Stockmann runs a local rock group and his marriage to his teacher-wife is distinctly edgy. David Bowie's Changes provides a constant background, but the big innovation is to turn the town-hall meeting, where Dr Stockmann states his case, into an audience-involving event. The house-lights go up, Mr Smith launches into a tirade claiming 'our whole society is polluted' and we are invited to vote on the issue and to offer our opinions.
Denne historien er fra March 20, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 20, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
