The Lady from the Sea

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Description

David Eldridge's new version of Ibsen's classic play, published to coincide with its premiere at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, October 2010.

When the lighthouse keeper's daughter Ellida meets the widower Dr Wangel, she tries to put her long-lost first love far behind her and begin a new life as a wife and stepmother. But the tide is turning, an English ship is coming down the fjord, and the undercurrents threaten to drag a whole family beneath the surface in this passionate and sweeping drama. Ellida must choose between the values of the land: solidity and reliability against those of the sea: mystery and fluidity.

Ibsen's lyrical and still startlingly modern masterpiece, anticipated the emergence of psychoanalysis and talking cures. Similar to Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, The Lady from the Sea vibrantly explores the constrained social position of women, exploring themes of choice, marriage, responsibility and freedom.

David Eldridge's translation is subtle, faithful and sensitive to Ibsen's language, and makes this classic play accessible to the English reader without compromising any of the original's intensely poetic and atmospheric tone.

Reviews

'a new adaptation of the work by acclaimed English playwright David Eldridge' * Chris Riches, Daily Express, 19.10.10 *
'David Eldridge's superb new version plunges headfirst into its strange Freudian depths without neglecting its sly humour. This is writing that is attuned to the tug of unspoken desire that threatens to drag us all under, but also to the embarrassing misunderstandings of everyday life.' * Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 20.10.10 *
'The Lady from the Sea encompasses all those familiar Ibsen themes: duty, responsibility, the position of women and how the past encroaches on the future. But it is about something more slippery and moist, too: Ellida is not suffering from nerves as her husband believes, she is in the grip of the madness of sexual and emotional obsession.' * Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 20.10.10 *
'this fine new version of the text by David Eldridge keeps the language lyrical yet lean, laced with a mordant wit.' * Dominic Maxwell, The Times, 20.10.10 *
'an adaptation by David Eldridge every bit as poetic and absorbing as his versions of Ibsen's The Wild Duck and John Gabriel Borkman' * Lynne Walker, Independent, 25.10.10 *
'Something of an Ibsen specialist now, what with John Gabriel Borkman and The Wild Duck at the Donmar under his belt, David Eldrige's new version of The Lady from the Sea (1888) is highly commendable - it's lucid, sufficiently lyrical and attentively colloquial but not showily, distractingly so.' * Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph, 28.10.10 *

Author Bio

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright and poet whose realistic, symbolic and often con troversial plays revolutionised European theatre. He is widely regarded as the father of modern dram a. His acclaimed plays include A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Community. His centenary is celebrated in 2006. David Eldridge's plays include Market Boy (NT), Serving it up, A Week with Tony, Under the Blue Sky, M.A.D. and Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness (Royal Court). He adapted Festen which was a smash-hit in 2004 .