Theater News

Norwegian Production of Peer Gynt Will Have Three-Performance Run at Delacorte in October

Svein Sturla Hungnes in Peer Gynt
Svein Sturla Hungnes in Peer Gynt

A concert version of an acclaimed, multi-media production of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt will be presented in New York at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater for three performances this fall, October 5-7. Directed by and starring Svein Sturla Hungnes, the production has a cast of more than 150. Edvard Grieg’s well known score for the play will be performed by the American Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Timothy Myers, and the Peer Gynt Chamber Choir, led by Nina Moen.

Hungnes’ Peer Gynt has been staged annually at the Peer Gynt Festival on Norway’s Lake Gålå, drawing crowds of more than 15,000 each season. The festival was inaugurated in 1928 to commemorate the centennial of the birth of Ibsen, who is considered to be one of the most influential dramatists of all time as the author of A Doll’s House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, and other groundbreaking works. Peer Gynt was written in 1867; unlike the majority of Ibsen’s plays, it strays from the modern realism he helped develop as an art form and takes place in a fantasy world.

At the Delacorte, Peer Gynt will be performed in English. The cast includes Hungnes as Peer Gynt, Kari Simonsen, Linda Øvrebø, Mari Maurstad, Stein Grønli, Rune Reksten, Karoline Kruger, and Camilla Granlien. Musical arrangements are by Atle Halstensen and film direction is by Arne Rostad.

Tickets to Peer Gynt are priced at $145 and $95. All performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. The Delacorte Theater is located in Central Park, with entrances at 79th Street and Central Park West. For more information, click here.

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Peer Gynt

Closed: October 7, 2006