adelaide theatre

When We Dead Awaken, by Henrik Ibsen, follows the story of Professor Arnold Rubek, his wife, Maia, and his original muse, Irene, as they tackle their relationships, nostalgia, and acceptance of life and death. Ibsen was known to work with self-analytical themes, and When We Dead Awaken is the perfect example; written to make you consider life from the perspective of others, be honest with yourself (and your potentially declining artistic inspiration), morality, and mortality.

True to the time this piece was written, the play has three acts and two intermissions, with the beginning of each act providing a new location, soundscape, and sometimes lighting, for the story.

We join the gravelly-voiced Rubek and his wife as they return to their home country, a lovely soundtrack of birdsong offsetting Frau Rubek’s obvious frustration as she attempts to gain her husband’s attention. We learn the pair are staying at a Norwegian Spa and Mountain Resort, and Professor Rubek is enquiring after a woman in white being followed by a woman in black, whom he saw walking in the middle of the night.

This woman in white, we learn from the well-spoken Hotel Manager, is another guest from the hotel, but the woman is an enigma to the hotel manager. While the Professor is attempting to speak to the woman in white, his wife is enthralled by the life and stories of the loud, and sometimes not too subtly lewd, bear hunter. When the Professor finally has a chance to speak with the woman, it is revealed that the woman was the Professor’s first muse, the artwork of whom made him famous: Irene.

Irene has a voice of honey, but is not afraid to hold back and raise her voice to scold the Professor when it is needed. During her scenes we are witness to a woman with severe trauma and hysteria (which these days we would recognise as mental illness) doing her best to navigate her way through a life of pain, regret, and lost love, while battling her inner demons.

As the history between the Professor and Irene unfolds, there is a juxtaposition between them reminiscing on the past, and Maia being stubbornly set on future adventures with the bear hunter. The audience is gently rocked between past and present as our eyes ping pong between the characters on stage, glowing under the sunshine-like lights.

The only concern I found was that some of the more intense background sounds in Acts One and Three overwhelmed the voices of those speaking, but I am also aware this was probably done on purpose, because those sounds most certainly achieved their desired effects, and matching sound speaker volume with a human voice is a very fine line.

Each cast member melts into the persona of their character and bounces off their character’s partner with ease, the emotions weaving off the stage being almost palpable. Boasting minimal sets, props, and lighting changes to keep the focus on the characters, the story unfolds gracefully and ends in a way which will keep you thinking about the characters on your drive home.

The director made a creative choice to focus on the relationships between the characters, and some of the characters’ story arcs in Act three have been intentionally left out for the audience’s interpretation. If you are familiar with the play, be sure to come prepared to experience a fresh perspective on the story; if you are unfamiliar, allow the characters to carry you through a past-and-present experience of human nature.

To book tickets to When We Dead Awaken, please visit https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1385262.

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