Ibsens Play Ghosts and Robert Lepages play The Blue Dragon - Case Study Example

Performance Analysis between Ibsen’s Play Ghosts and Robert Lepage’s play The Blue Dragon Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen and The Blue Dragon by Robert Lepage are two plays that deal with unique issues. Both the plays are completely different with respect to their context. Each play is set up in completely different cultural background, thus the issues addressed in both the plays are different as well. The following paper deals with the analysis of the performance of both these plays and a critical evaluation of the contents of these plays. Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Henrik Ibsen is known for his plays that portray issues regarding morality. Ghosts is also one of the plays that represent 19th century morality through its characters. This is a story of a woman Helen Alving who is about to establish an orphanage in the memory of her dead husband. Mrs. Alving consults her spiritual adviser Pastor Manders as well. Throughout the play, Mrs. Alving is seen dealing with different issues related to morality thrown at her from different aspects of life. Mrs. Alving has been trying to save her family from her philandering husband throughout the story. In order to save her son from being corrupted by his father, she sends her away. Her worries double when it is disclosed that her son is suffering from an inherited sexually transmitted disease which cannot be cured. In addition to a large number of moral issues, another issue is raised in the play when Mrs. Alving finds out that her son Oswald has fallen in love with Regina Engstrand, Helen Alving’s maid. The morality comes into question when it is disclosed that Regina is an illegitimate daughter of Captain Alving, thus Oswald’s half-sister. Amid all the problems, Mrs. Alving is occupied in the dilemma of whether or not to euthanize her son as he wishes. Thus, another issue of morality i.e. euthanasia is raised towards the end of the play. Regarding the performance of the play, it was observed that the acting was not psychologically engaged. The actors did not put their heart and mind into bringing the play to life. It felt like a flat delivery of the script and did not have any feel to it. The fact that Ibsen’s script is very strong cannot be denied but in order to show the significance of the play, it has to be acted well as well. Thus, it can be said that the significance of the issues raised by this play were lost somewhere amid the poor acting by the actors. The overall theatrical setting was not impressive as well, as it was observed that the theatrical setting required rich context but here it was merely flat which lowered the significance of the play. In some of the scenes, it was observed that the lines were delivered in a flat manner rather than in a dynamic tone. For example; when Manders interrogates Regina, the interrogation seemed reckless and flat rather than being serious and dramatic. The delivery of lines was mostly flat and without any expressions. In order to bring the feel into a play, it is highly important that the lines be delivered in just the manner as intended by the writer otherwise the meaning of the lines may be lost. This was the case with this play where the meaning and significance of the lines were lost amid the lack of expressions by the actors. It was noticed that there was lack of sufficient discussion among the actors before the play. There was no psychological connection between the actors and everyone seemed to deliver his own lines without considering the intensity of the response from the opposite actor. It was also observed that actors crashed into one another’s lines. This was the evidence of the fact that there was lack of sufficient practice. The characteristic of a good theatre is that it connects its audience emotionally but this attribute was missing in the overall performance. There were certain bits where the actors emanated feelings such as the grief shown by Oswald upon his condition. The point that was done well was the representation of the tension faced by Mrs. Alving due to the all the issues. These problems were the essence of the play and they were portrayed well through Mrs. Alving’s character. Therefore, it can be concluded that Ghosts has a very strong theme and a powerful script but the performance that was observed was not as powerful as it should have been. The significance of the story of the play and the significance of the issues that the play deals with were lost amid the psychologically disconnected acting and flat delivery of lines by the actors. However, at some points the actors emanated feelings that touched the hearts of the audience. Overall, the performance was weak. THE BLUE DRAGON BY ROBERT LEPAGE The Blue Dragon is one of Robert Lepage’s most acknowledged plays. According to Dundjerovic (2007), this play represents the theatricality of Robert Lepage. Merging the Western and Eastern cultures is one of the interests of Lepage and this can be easily observed in this play (Dundjerovic 2009). This play represents the Western and Eastern cultures very intensely therefore the differences between both the cultures can be easily observed through this play. The Blue Dragon is the story about a man Pierre Lamontagne who has left French Canada to live in China. He was once a conceptual artist but now he only runs a small gallery of Chinese art. He is also having an affair with a Chinese artist, Xiao Ling. The story starts to get intense when Pierre Lamontagne’s previous wife Claire comes to China to adopt a baby and finds her previous husband. Xiao Ling is already pregnant with Pierre’s child which adds to the complexity of the situation. At this point, a love triangle starts to unfold where both the women are attracted to Pierre and he finds himself in a difficult situation. The end of this problem is presented to the audience as three alternate endings. The play presents a nice critique of both Western and Eastern cultures. The story presents the prominence of mythology in China and the prominence of technological development in the West. These facts are presented through the situations the characters of the play are put into. The performance of the play was satisfactory as the change of scenery and delivery of lines by the characters represented the core of the play in a very nice manner. The set in which this play takes place is a two leveled stage which transform quickly due to the change of scenes. Since there are so many frequent changes between scenes, the two leveled stage make the play move smoothly without any hindrance about the change of scenery. Due to the constant change in scenery, the play gives a cinematic feeling. The audience feel like they are watching a movie in a very realistic setting as the sceneries change almost instantly just like in the movies. The visual add-ons of the play also enhance the cultural critique presented in the story. The frequent changes representing Eastern and Western cultures give the audience a chance to feel the difference between the cultures. The scene setting plays its role effectively and lives up to the expectations. The acting also gives a cinematic feeling which adds to the constant changing of scenes. The acting and design of the sets make this play a successful attempt to bring cinematic realism to theatre. The aspects regarding the setting of scenes and acting live up to the expectation but when it comes to the story of the play, it can be observed that the story was a little clichéd and overly dramatic. The problems that are showed between Claire and Lamontagne are nothing different that they ordinary problems that are faced by two people who part ways and meet again. Both these characters seem to be stuck in the problems created by their own drama. From contextual perspective, it can be said that the play also portrayed feminism through the character Xiao Ling. Ling is shown to have her own art gallery viewing as the play begins to unfold and then towards the end of the play she tries to raise the baby on her own after making everyone believe that she had an abortion. The issue of raising the baby alone can also represent moral and ethical issues in the society. Thus, it can be concluded that The Blue Dragon by Robert Lepage had a strong visual representation of the differences between the Western and Eastern cultures and the acting also added to the prominence of the core of the play. There were not many weaknesses in the performance except some parts of the story which seemed clichéd. Overall, the play was nicely handled and it connected the audience with its visual plays and psychologically connected acting of the actors. As compared to Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, the performance of The Blue Dragon was more effective and the play was delivered more efficiently. It cannot be denied that Ghosts had very complex story with intense moral issues that could have been represented very nicely had it been acted well. However, The Blue Dragon did not represent as many issues as the Ghosts but the nice performance showed its story as more significant as compared to Ghosts. The actors were psychologically connected while performing The Blue Dragon, while the scenario was the opposite in case of Ghosts. The stage setting gave The Blue Dragon a cinematic feeling while Ghosts did not have many changes in the scenery. REFERENCES Dundjerovic, A. S. (2007). The Theatricalities of Robert Lepage. Quebec: McGill Queen’s Press. Dundjerovic, A. S. (2009). Robert Lepage. New York: Taylor & Francis. Ibsen, H. (1938). Ghosts. Forgotten Books. Read More