ITA on screen: Ibsen House
After the success of the ITALive livestreams, we are expanding the offer with ITA on screen. Registrations of livestreams on the big screen in one of ITA's halls.
‘Spectacularly designed and thrilling family epic with delightful actors’ - Trouw ★★★★
Based on Ibsen, Simon Stone wrote and directed a grand family saga about the troublesome but inevitable coexistence of different generations under one roof. Maarten Heijmans received the Arlecchino (best male performance in a supporting role) for his portrayal of Sebastiaan.
Duration 3 hours and 35 minutes, with one intermission
Genre theatre
Language Dutch, with English subtitles
ITA on screen
After the success of the ITALive livestreams, we are expanding the offer with ITA on screen. Registrations of livestreams on the big screen in one of ITA's halls. In February, during Brandhaarden festival, Who Killed My Father and The End of Eddy were shown in the Rabozaal. This fall, in addition to Ibsen House by the ITA ensemble / Simon Stonewe will also be showing Mist by Nederlands Dans Theater 1 / Damien Jalet / Kohei Nawa / Rahi Rezvani, Le Tartuffe ou l'Hypocrite by Comédie-Française / Ivo van Hove and La Reprise. Histoire(s) du théâtre (I) by IIPM / NTGent / Milo Rau.
Simon Stone about Ibsen House
‘The more I read Ibsen’s plays, the more I see that characters recur. Although they have different names, they bear the same features. Like they are cousins, sisters, daughters, sons of a single character, once imagined by Ibsen. The young, idealistic dreamer; the bankrupt industrialist, fighting for his legacy; the woman who is stronger than her husband, searching for meaning; the man who is haunted by his father’s actions throughout his life; the couple whose relationship falls apart into a chaos of sex, death and mutual accusation.
In Ibsen house, I process this material into a story about different generations in one house. The rooms in this house are places of trauma and confrontation, but also of joyful memory. The house harbours the memory of each chapter from this family’s history in the way it jumps from one masterpiece by Ibsen to another. His entire work is permeated with a deep insight into families in times of crisis. Into wounds that do not heal. It is about how we struggle to be able to go on. About how we attempt to feel normal again after things have been far from normal for far too long.’
ITA on screen: Ibsen House
After his stagings of an entirely contemporary Medea and Husbands and wives by Woody Allen, Simon Stone falls back on Ibsen. He already caused much ado internationally with his quirky adaptation of The wild duck, which was performed a few years ago at the Holland Festival. That adaptation was the starting point for Stone’s first and much-praised feature film The Daughter (2016). For Ibsen house, Stone used several of the Norwegian playwright’s less well-known plays.
At the centre of the play, there is the holiday home designed by renowned architect Cees Kerkman, where the various family members meet each other at crucial moments in their lives. We watch the family from 1964, when the house is being built, until 2016, when it finally goes up in flames. As is traditional with Ibsen, there are quite a few secrets and traumas that have a fatal influence on the lives of the different generations. An intriguing game of repression, lies and reckonings emerges, with the house as the only witness to the entire family tragedy.
Stone has absorbed Ibsen completely and wrote an entirely new play in close dialogue with the ensemble. ‘Rehearsing and writing are both one uninterrupted dialogue with the actors and contributors. -|-The most important thing is to continuously find out more about the characters, so they become complex and genuine, but also as playful and humorous as possible.’
In non-chronological order, he reconstructs the crucial scenes from the family album. In his staging, he looks for a form of hyperrealism where the actors constantly talk over each other and a sense of realistic time is created. His approach shows his passion for film. The revolving house enables him to alternate between scenes and periods, but also to constantly change the visual setting. Stone enjoys welcoming coincidence into his rehearsal process and using theatrical means in a way that generates great authenticity. Catching life’s complexity and banality is what he is continuously striving for.
In his dialogues, deep tragedy and humour alternate at a fast pace in a story about a family that tries to leave the past behind, but keeps repeating the mistakes of the previous generations.
REVIEWS
Parool
'Stone delivers an intriguing and rich adaptation of the Norwegian playwright’s work. (...) the acting is infallible, with no exceptions (...) Ibsen house forces itself on current affairs and digs its nails in deeply.'
Leidsch Dagblad
’Ibsen house is a compelling play that not only succeeds in grabbing people’s attention for the full four hours, but is also genuinely moving.(...) beautiful, intense role by Hans Kesting, who heartbreakingly portrays the old and senile Cees (...) A large group of actors gives shape to this intense family drama. And every single one of them excels. Janni Goslinga delivers a surprising performance as the wild daughter addicted to drugs and liquor. Claire Bender plays the layered character of daughter Lena. Maria Kraakman is – after much misery – an extinguished older Lena, wiser and sadder, and is also impressive as Johanna, Kerkman’s wife, with her silent forcelessness. And Maarten Heijmans is able to move the audience to tears as the grown-up son Sebastiaan. (...) An absolute top performance.'
Trouw
‘Spectacularly designed and thrilling family epic with delightful actors’
Libération
'le séquençage digne des meilleures séries de HBO'
PROGRAM BROCHURE
Read more about the text, direction and the scenography of this performance in our digital program brochure.
Australian director, actor and writer Simon Stone (1984) is one of the most acclaimed theatre-makers in the international circuit.
In season 23|24 his directing of Medea will be reprised at ITA.
Credits
written and directed by Simon Stone
after Henrik Ibsen
translation, dramaturge Peter Van Kraaij
scenographer Lizzie Clachan
light design James Farncombe
music Stefan Gregory
costumes An D'Huys
assistant director Boris Kip, Nina de la Parra
assistant scenographer Bart Van Merode
costume design assistant Fauve Ryckebusch
casting advice Hans Kemna
private producer Gert-Jan en Corinne van den Bergh
head of technical staff Reyer Meeter
head of artistic bureau Ulrike Bürger-Bruijs
production Michiel van Schijndel, Edith den Hamer
technical manager Kevin Cuyvers
technical staff Sander van Elteren, Zinzi Kemper, Berend van Leer (stagiaire), David Logger, Timo Merkies, Carlo Micali, Manon van den Nouland, Stephan Pot, Dennis van Scheppingen, Erwin Sterk, Chris Tijsmans, Paul van der Zouwe
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hair & grime department David Verswijveren
head of costume department Wim van Vliet (head), Farida Bouhbouh, Claudia Pellegrini
photography Jan Versweyveld
graphic design Sara Fortuin, studio ITA
publicity Joris van den Ring-Bax
with thanks to Nesoptiek
powered by Clifford Chance
livestream director Reinier Bruijne
creative producer Wouter van Ransbeek
theatre director livestream Ivo van Hove
executive producer Ulrike Bürger-Bruijs
operational production manager Peter Hazenberg
production video Mark Thewessen
system technician Alex de Gier
assistant director Wendy Tames
live shading and colouring Lennert Prins
1st camera Ramon de Boer
camera Marjolein Hoitinga, Wim Adam, Marijn Zurburg
camera assistant Dennis van Tol, Lisanne Boon
sound engineer Erwin Sterk
live stream engineer Genes Peters
