Henrik, lyver du?* (Henrik, Are You Lying?)

The five characters of Henrik, lyver du?* (Henrik, Are You Lying?) by Susanne Øglænd are extracted and collected from the recurring figures in the work of Ibsen, and the texts are mostly from Ibsen’s many plays.

The action of Henrik, lyver du? takes place in our time and it reflects most of all the process of the project: The road and the experiment are the aims. The question posed is how Ibsen functions on a personal level when his texts become the actors’ only weapon and dictionary. The audience witnesses a naturalist drama blown up in interchanging sequences of text, performing arts and music.

From the performance program by Susanne Øglænd:

"CLASSICS ARE ALWAYS GHOST

Great classics are eternally of current interest. We say: Ibsen has been dead for a hundred years. We say: He is a stranger to us. The sins of the fathers, women’s emancipation, sexual neuroses related to Lutheranism – are problems from the previous century. Distant past. Only when one meets Ibsen with this distance can one re-discover him – as something we believed to be an unknown part of ourselves – something we believed we had long ago surpassed.

The experiment Henrik, lyver du? is a Norwegian-German journey into unknown land. The fiord is still in Norway. Someplace. Actors from two countries are attempting to identify with disappeared characters – they search for survivors, and they find longing. For the classics are what Mrs. Alving referred to as ghosts: Old, dead opinions. Old, dead faith still living within us. Here as well as there."

Sources: BIT Teatergarasjen, autumn program 2006. 12.09.2010: http://www.bit-teatergarasjen.no/article/64

Susanne Øglænd, from the performance program of BIT Teatergarasjen 2006.

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title’s literal meaning.