I think Ibsen is a genius because he captures –
the man or the woman perfectly at all times.
I’ve heard that he used many of his own family and friends as characters in the play.
That’s the same way we actors work. When we portray a person,
we have to get inspiration from something we know and can relate to in people we know.
He must have had a huge insight in how peoples’ weaknesses and strength worked.
It’s fascinating.
You beautiful earth, don’t be too cross, that I trampled your grass for nought worth telling.
You beautiful sun, it was so much loss was your radiant touch on a folkless dwelling.
There was no-one at home to be warmed and provided; — the owner, they say, had never resided.
Beautiful earth and beautiful sun, to cherish my mother was stupidly done.
The spirit’s a miser, and Nature’s free-giving.
It’s a stiff price, to pay for one’s birth with one’s living.
The problem with Peer Gynt is that the moment you think you understood the play,
you haven’t understood a shit.
Because Ibsen wrote that play as a dramatic verse, a 4,5 hours poem, to say to people:
what’s the difference between being yourself and being yourself enough.
The atmosphere at Gålå is…
Peer is from that area,
and with all the fjords and mountains and the exceptional nature.
It gives the perspective of a boy that is out hunting, not giving a shit, getting drunk, getting girls.
And also the mysterious things which I think is vital in the play.
You stand there at the outdoor stage with 2000 people watching –
and you have a huge orchestra doing Peer Gynt’s music. It’s so powerful.
I’ve met people like Bjørn Kjos, who is running the Norwegian Air Shuttle.
He is so fascinated by Peer Gynt who inspires him to make everything he does.
He was so crazy that he invited us to do Peer Gynt on our way to Bergen.
Mother Åse and I were doing “Bukkerittet” at the counter,
and on the plane we were playing Peer Gynt in the aisle.
And Peer was the captain saying: This is captain Peer Gynt. We are landing in Bergen in approximately 20 minutes.
In Bergen Solveig was waiting for Peer Gynt, singing. It was fantastic.
You can do it in so many ways and so many people are inspired by it.
I don’t know how many countries are doing Peer Gynt right now but it’s many.
I think Ibsen is played in around 140 countries every year.
And now for home! What though the way Be steep and narrow what though Fortune
Be still malicious old Peer Gynt Will go his own way, and remain,
poor but virtuous.
I think Ibsen in 2017 was the same as he was 150 years ago.
Because he’s always up to date whatever time.
That’s the brilliance.