Peer Gynt Recharged

“Ibsen’s dramatic poem, which at one point he doubted could be staged, is a gift for the imagination. Yet in Terje Tveit’s expressionistic concept, Peer Gynt Recharged at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, this doubt is shredded. Tveit has swapped Peer’s pastoral world for 1920s’ American gangland. The Gold Pim is headed by Miss Kabaret Button-Moulder, a sultry cabaret singer, who calls Peer to account for his sins. [...] Tveit’s production is a surfeit of good things: each theatrical element rich in calorific value. The striking lighting design by Christopher Nairne resembles the tone and angles of a graphic novel, the well-drilled, expressionistic acting style to the compressed, heightened rhyming scheme of Tveit’s verse; each was slick and dazzled in its own right. [...] Various sized picture frames dominate: a theatrical device to indicate location, or emphasise character or emotion. The convention is neat. The portable frames allow the action, which at times is conscious and unconscious, to move efficiently from section to section. There are moments when the groupings and tableau present breath taking visions of hell and suffering. The ensemble company of fifteen adapt well to the episodic, almost filmic, style. The action is interspersed with choreographed musical numbers, such as Broadway Baby and Chicago and features the Charleston and the Cake Walk. These add to the production’s overall decadent style and energy. Simeon Oakes as Peer Gynt looks the part and has a Pan/Puck-like demeanour. At one point he poses — ‘David-like’ — for a life drawing class. His nakedness emphasising the mantra I am what I am. Yet there is no place to hide. Andrea Miller and Cleo Felstead add shape and colour to Tveit’s tight rhyming scheme. Yet the strength of the performance style lies with the ensemble.”