Henrik Ibsen’s 1873 play about Julian, Emperor and Galilean has been described as “bad history and bad theatre”. It is not that bad, but it is certainly not an easy play. Let's see what the National Theatre in London makes of it:
Live like Constantius, under Christ’s terror and judgement, or rule a land of light! Emperor, or Galilean, that’s your choice.
Charting the true odyssey of an astonishing man, Julian, as he struggles to find spiritual fulfilment and political pre-eminence, Ibsen’s lost masterpiece sweeps across Greece and the Middle-East from AD 351 covering 12 crucial years in the history of civilisation.
Oh Dionysus, pour your glory into the minds of men and fill their souls with rapture until rejoicing pours forth in dance and song! Life! Life!
Made Emperor, Julian attempts to abolish Christianity and restore the old gods. But met with fierce resistance, this great free-thinker become s a tyrant more hated than his brutal predecessor Constantius. And in arousing the Christians from their apathy he advances their cause, his life and death altering the course of history in stark opposition to his intent.
All I wanted was to return mankind to an age of joy. But maybe I’m living in the wrong time.
There is an article by Ben Power, who has adapted the new version, in today's Independent:
In its entirety, the original takes up 10 acts and over eight hours of drama. In creating this new version, I've conflated characters and scenes, and the new version will last just over three hours. Jonathan Kent's production will use a cast of 50 performers, to realise the scale of Ibsen's vision. The playwright puts the whole of the Roman Empire – soldiers, politicians, Pagans, Christians – onstage and, in the midst of it all, describes a young man with a very modern problem; how to reconcile his yearning for faith with the reality of the world in which he lives. It was the dilemma which faced Ibsen in the middle of the 19th century and it's one which faces much of the world in 2011.
Certainly worth a ticket.
