As usual here at Nationaltheatret we aim sky high, plumb the depths, and embrace with wide open arms, said Artistic Director Hanne Tømta when she launched the program for this autumn’s Ibsen Festival. The Festival dates are from 23 August to 9 September and the program includes four Nationaltheatret productions, one co-production, six guest productions, one photography exhibition and one award ceremony. The overall theme is the individual and society, or ‘I and the others’. With one exception, the guest productions come from Europe. Nationaltheatret’s Contemporary Festival has been closed, but is resurrected as an integrated part of the Ibsen Festival with productions by the two contemporary playwrights Arne Lygre and Fredrik Brattberg.

A stepmother who cannot communicate with her husband’s children. A new family constellation in which there is a little too much drinking. A daughter who is taken for granted but who is given a new chance. An amateur who takes himself too seriously rather than being industrious. And the longing for something bigger and more intense beyond domestic life.
How can the production of The Lady from the Sea at The Rose Theatre Kingston, be characterised by gestures, ankle length dresses and watch chains, when the story sounds so disturbingly familiar, 124 years after it was written? Stephen Unwin has once more adapted Ibsen for the British stage, but in The Lady from the Sea it is Ibsen who is responsible for the current relevance.

Dr. Wangel: "This longing for the absolute, the infinite… It’ll sweep you off into the darkness". Malcolm Storry and Joely Richardson in The Lady from the Sea. Photo: Johan Persson/ The Rose Theatre.