Director Shana Cooper’s intriguing new production of Henrik Ibsen’s “The Lady from the Sea,” a symbolic, sensualist drama from 1888, has something in common with both Daniel Fish’s Broadway revival of “Oklahoma” and Court Theatre’s own recent production of “Othello.” These shows all are interesting meditations on plays, brimming with ideas and concepts and formative experiments, but they resist the actual plays themselves, at least as the authors and previous directors have intended them.
In fact, all three of these deconstructive shows worked hard to subvert the settled nature of the plays they were doing, or, at minimum, to impose contemporary value systems on works created long in the past.
This is not necessarily a criticism: the argument about works modern directors find racist or sexist or overly in the thrall of so-called American exceptionalism is akin to the fight over the U.S. Constitution. There is a case that productions should respect authorial intent, even if the author is long dead. And there’s an argument that all plays are living, breathing entities that must be reinterpreted with every production in light of dominant artistic value systems, even if that reinterpretation would have confounded the original writer.
I tend toward the latter point of view, but I feel that audiences also need to be informed of what they’re buying. And, as with many things originating on college campuses (including Court at the University of Chicago), the more audience-friendly theatrical qualities of empathy, romantic attraction and vulnerability often struggle for focus.
That’s certainly the case here. In essence, the story of “The Lady from the Sea” (which is rarely produced) involves a married woman, Ellida (Chaon Cross), who grew up near the sea but now lives in a dull place with her boring husband Dr. Wangel (Gregory Linington) and his two daughters from a previous marriage, Hilda (a character who also shows up in “The Master Builder” and is well played here by Angela Morris) and Bolette (Tanya Thai McBride).
But Ellida has a past: long ago she became infatuated with the Stranger (Kelli Simpkins), a mysterious sailor who had to escape after he killed the captain of his ship. She’d agreed to wait for his eventual return and, during the play, he shows up again, throwing her current arrangement into chaos. Albeit in the language of 1888, Ibsen dramatized the raw sexual attraction between Ellida and this previous lover, exploring questions of fidelity, the wisdom (or lack thereof) of expedient choices and the potential role of the unselfish provision of freedom in a marriage. At its core, the play is exploring whether Ellida is better off with a murderer to whom she is hugely attracted than a quotidian doctor. Land, water and all the rest function mostly as symbols for sexual desire.
Cross, a superb actress, certainly shows us that struggle, internally. Andrew Boyce’s scenic design even brings a bit of sea to the mountains, allowing the strong company of actors to wade and splash in the sensual water. Cooper and choreographer Erika Chong Shuch use bold movement choices, heavy breaths and physical contortions as expressionistic tools. And they extend those ideas to the entire world of the play, including daughters who don’t want to be stuck here, either, and the other hangers-on at the doctor’s place, Lyngstrand (Will Mobley), Arnholm (Samuel Taylor) and the wisely removed Ballested (Dexter Zollicoffer).
It’s a very interesting feminist take on the work, designed to remove the original textual emphasis on Wangel’s permissiveness and thus agency over Ellida and focus on her making her own choices. That part works great. But what’s lacking here is enough clarity of attraction: Ellida does not feel especially connected to either character or capable of being changed by them. The show never feels like it is unfolding in present tense.
To my mind, that problem has arisen because of the show’s overly meditative and isolating focus. And because it fails to make the available men remotely credible choices for the younger women, extensions of the Ellida theme.
To put that more simply, Court has found a powerful way to explore a great character’s inner life. But the show struggles with the other side of Ibsen — as a social dramatist, constantly probing the myriad connections we make as human beings, as well as vulnerable dramatic characters working things out before an audience. Ibsen’s people never got so lost inside their own heads that they could not relate.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “The Lady from the Sea”
When: Through March 27
Where: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.
Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Tickets: $37.50-$84 at 773-753-4472 or www.courttheatre.org
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