Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Leading a powerhouse cast, Seana McKenna, Lucy Peacock and Scott Wentworth light up the stage in Ibsen’s psychological drama John Gabriel Borkman. Directed by Carey Perloff, the production is now in previews and officially opens on Friday, August 19, at the Tom Patterson Theatre.
Ms Perloff was last at the Festival in 2009, directing Phèdre, which later moved to San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, where she has served as Artistic Director since 1993. For this production, she’s working with a new translation from her long-time collaborator, Paul Walsh, who served for nine years as senior dramaturge at ACT, where his translations of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler were produced. This production of John Gabriel Borkman marks the world première of his translation, commissioned by the Festival.
The play tells the tragic story of a disgraced banker who refuses to accept responsibility for his actions, causing his family to tear itself apart.
Mr. Wentworth plays the title role, and Ms McKenna and Ms Peacock play the sparring twin sisters, Miss Ella Rentheim and Mrs. Gunhild Borkman. Audiences haven’t had the thrill of seeing these two women onstage together since 2013’s runaway hit Mary Stuart.
Antoine Yared plays Erhart Borkman, the son of John Gabriel and Gunhild, with Sarah Afful as Mrs. Fanny Wilton, Natalie Francis as Frida, Deidre Gillard-Rowlings as Mrs. Borkman’s Maid and Joseph Ziegler as Vilhalm Foldal.
“Although this is a play from the beginning of the 20th century, it’s so pertinent to our world today, with its portrait of a titanic but disgraced figure from the world of finance,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “It’s a very human drama about the emotional price you pay for the desire to make a mark in the world.”
“In recent years, I have returned to this play because it seems to be wrestling so vividly with the salient questions of our present moment,” says Ms Perloff. “I’m from Northern California – the land of the tech titans. These are highly charismatic individuals who could be viewed as enormously potent businessmen and as deluded narcissists. They truly believe that they are changing the world. Is it true? How much is fantasy and how much is reality? As with Borkman, we’ll never really know.”
The creative team features Designer Christina Poddubiuk, Lighting Designer Bonnie Beecher and Sound Designer Josh Schmidt.
Production support is generously provided by Nona Macdonald Heaslip and by Alice & Tim Thornton.
Sponsor for the 2016 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre is BMO Financial Group.
Support for the 2016 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre is generously provided by Richard Rooney & Laura Dinner.
John Gabriel Borkman Forum Highlights
The Forum is a series of activities and events, featuring exclusive showcases, guest speakers, special meals, dynamic dialogues and family fun, that offer theatregoers a unique opportunity to delve deeper into the ideas and issues raised by the 2016 playbill and its theme of After the Victory.
Themes related to John Gabriel Borkman will be explored through several Forum events, including:
• In Other Words
Wednesday, August 3, 10:45 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Meet the translators of two of this season’s productions, Maureen Labonté and Paul Walsh, and discover how this special art can open the world of the play.
• Ibsen The Symbolist
Wednesday, September 21, 10:45 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Though he is often referred to as the “father of realism,” Henrik Ibsen’s later plays, including John Gabriel Borkman, reveal the poet in him, and much is to be gleaned by looking at this work as symbolist, and as the birth of modern drama.
Sustaining support for the Forum is generously provided by Kelly & Michael Meighen and the T.R. Meighen Family Foundation.
The 2016 season runs until November 5. It features Macbeth, As You Like It, A Chorus Line, Shakespeare in Love, A Little Night Music, All My Sons, Breath of Kings, John Gabriel Borkman, The Hypochondriac, The Aeneid, Bunny and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit stratfordfestival.ca or call 1.800.567.1600.
Photo: Lucy Peacock, Seana McKenna and Scott Wentworth. ©2015 Don Dixon.
2016-08-03
Stratford: Ibsen's "John Gabriel Borkman" now on stage