The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-12-07
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, BY W., ChanhXrIaIn

IT MUST. have fhsetrywith mingled enc!
lions that the great. audience which
gathered at the ftAfntropolita theater last
night, watched fthes Mansfield production
OF the Ibsen dramatic poem, ''Peer. Gynt.'t
~ For the student@sof Ibsen and his phil
osophy of life, It. WasEan Illuminating ex4s
position Of theggfdaaenss Meanings the
esoteric symbolisnS ttas allegorical sig
n1f1cance of poem which aims to be an
epic OF the human soul. It was an ex-
position, too, that was wrought out by q,
master Of the theatric art and designed
to give substance and form to what had
hitherto been so entirely mental pic
| lures Of spiritual experiences. that some
Of the more emotional devotees Of the
lbsels cult looked forward to- their ma
Sgca ! 9 with feelings a. mingled
= For the Norwegian Ii 7; proud Of his coun:
try, his literature ana their greatest rep>
resentative- man whom many au-
thorities, both literary and dramatic, hail
as .seeond only to fShakspere on fan1els
roll-the, occasion assumed significance
almost sacred. ;, In his view a, new and
almost unsupported phase Of Ibsen,s
work and characts sywas being unveiled
to American eyes. r. No. longer would
Norway's great man be considered a,
mere pesslmist and dabbler in sociolog,-
80 pAOoASiAA0' 3allu LIlell, The scenes IN
the beautiful GALES of his native country
and IN the rugged mountain saeters, the
gl1mpses of the old@peasarit life at home,
the introduction Of the wel-remembered
trolls and other folk of his hovhood
fancy, the hints Of old traditions and old
customs at the, wedding festivities
| these must have. stirred the Norwegian
| in the audience with an appeal they could
have had for no 1other. =
For the theatergoer who keeps abreast
OF the times by seeing all that is best on
| the: stage rather than by reading, the
production must have seemed impressive.
put confused. He missed the grip on his
interest Which q real drama of action gets
! py It's cumulative power. He missed tht,
| dramatic story with its situations. it's
cEmaxes, it's suspense. On the other
hand, there were scenes of, l. rollicking
comedy, where the madcap Peer, exhil-
Grated oy the fantastic ~fanciesi of his ex-
uperant imagination, fairly drags audi
tor and actor alike in headlong flights
thru the air. There were scenes of
purest pathos, as&in the parting from ana
| the return tor Solveig, and the death of
| Aase where flial love and cowardice of
death struggled for the mastery Of Peer.
Ihere were passages of biting satire as
on the desert coast where the hollowness
OF human friendship is f1outed There
| were specta culars appeals to the irnaei1ia-
ton, as where Peer-Iike Rip Van VIM
kle among the spirits Of the Catskhls4
| is surrounded by the impish Dovre;s king
and his trolls, where he rides the wild
boar with the Green-Clad Woman,e and
where he Is shipwrecked with the Strange
passenger. And there were moments
When the allegory rose as plainly to the
surface as in ttEveryman' SO that
even the most eursory might read, as in
the scene where the Button Molder con-
| fronts the Grant Peer at the successive
| crossroads, s,gs.s <1
The mixture of natural and supernat-
urad' or real and unreal, Of waking and
dreaming, of simple seriousness and fan
| tastic grotesquery, Of divine aspiration
and human degeneration, must yield to
everyone a more or less blurry impress
| sion OF the. production as whole. II
would be q mistake If indeed It is not
| irnpo ssible, to3sattempt any analysis OF
the productions that contemplates an OF :
deflya arrangement. Of these multitudin-
Gus impressions-eac significant and in
teresting, butSnot logically related-whfeh
the acted. Peer Gynt" makes upon the
auditor and spectator.
Peer Gynt" was written in 1867. Three
years before Ibseu had fed from Norway.
| where the battle between his partizans
and those OF Btornson was raging. Sick
at heart over the unappreciative ana
sometimes abusive attitude Of his coun-
! trymen. he determined to exile himself.
To this determination he adhered, save
for some brief summer trips home, for
| tWenty-seven years. Except for its
predecessor. Brand" I'M which he rallied
lat halfness'' and Indirectly at religion.
! Peer Gynt" lis the only dramatic poem
IN the long list Of Ibsen plays: 1t was
written at just; that transition period IN
the dranattst,sfliterary life whenshe was
breaking away from the romanticism
that had dominated his earlier efforts,
and was turning toward the study Of
modern social Problems work with
which his fame is chiefly associated The
poem thus exhibits touches Of both his
earlier and his later manner. The intro
!duction 81 the trolls and the pnura lxinut ~