Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt has long gone down in theatre history as one of the great mythical figures – an egocentric dreamer, romancer, liar, anti-hero, as well as something of an identification figure in a world gone mad, a world that has lost all sense of moderation. As a young man, Peer Gynt leaves his home in Norway and sets off on a journey across continents and into his own self – floating between dream and reality and always searching for his identity and his role in life. He crosses mountains and deserts, oceans and rivers, and meets otherwordly, mythical creatures. He finds wealth in America, is a prophet in Africa, and is finally crowned emperor in a psychiatric hospital in Egypt. Back in Norway, as he nears the end of his life, Peer Gynt realises that he never truly lived, that he has become an average person just like everyone else, and that only a long-forgotten love can save him from sinking into insignificance.

With his dramatic poem PEER GYNT, Henrik Ibsen wrote an epic about self-actualisation, thus creating a key text about modern humankind. As Peer Gynt tries out various ways of living, assumes and discards identities, exploits creative potential, and accumulates guilt through greed and megalomania, he displays a restlessness and an urgency that force us to face our fragile existence and allow us to explore our own dreams and desires, fears and hopes.