The play-within-the-film: Peer Gynt in Skjoldbjærg's En folkefiende (A public enemy, 2004)

Lisbeth Pettersen Wærp

doi:10.7557/13.3386

Abstract

In Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s adaptation of Ibsen’s En folkefiende ( An enemy of the people) , another Ibsen play serves as a crucial intertext: In the film, the protagonist and his family watch a Chinese production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt at the National Theatre in Oslo. This article examines Skjoldbjaerg’s film as an Ibsen adaptation in which a second Ibsen play serves as a significant intertext, or play-within-the-film, by examining the status and the function of the play-within-the-film. The conclusion is twofold: (1) The theatre sequence in the film indicates that protagonist Tomas Stockmann, by identifying with the Peer Gynt of the Chinese play, is given a motto – ”Straight through!” – that, however, is not really Peer Gynt’s motto in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt , but very similar to that of his counterpart in Ibsen’s oeuvre, namely Brand, and Brand’s “ Intet eller alt ”, “ All or Nothing ”. In the film Stockmann is made to share Brand’s idealism and heroism via a Peer Gynt that resembles Brand more than Peer Gynt, insisting as he does on fighting his way through. The complexity of the protagonist of the film is thus reflected in two opposed Ibsen characters, two opposites in Ibsen’s oeuvre, Brand and Peer Gynt. (2) This does not unambiguously support the adapter intention, that according to the director is to present a new, critical interpretation of the protagonist, but also challenges, or even undermines it: The critique of Tomas Stockmann as an extreme idealist, a destructive radical and an impossible hero, is confronted by the likewise obvious necessity of his kind.

Highlights

There are some significant differences, though: Peer is not saved by women in the Chinese production, but saves himself, and, more importantly, he fights a female Boyg: The Boyg is invisible, but its voice in the film is clearly female, whereas in Ibsen’s text the Boyg is male according to the pronouns used
Even though in the film Tomas Stockmann never utters the words “Straight through!”, what we see throughout the action of the film, is that he is acting like the Chinese Peer of the theatre production: Whereas Ibsen’s Peer Gynt “goes roundabout” until the end of the play, Skjoldbjærg’s Stockmann fights and never compromises, until the very end of the film, where we see him responding to Katrine’s ultimatum
Turning Katrine into Tomas Stockmann’s most powerful antagonist in the film, Frobenius and Skjoldbjærg have made a radical change in the plot composition as compared to Ibsen’s play: This makes the conflict of the adaptation a classical, tragic conflict between family demands (Katrine, Eilif) and the demands of society

Summary

Introduction

Last but not least: Why did Skjoldbjærg and Frobenius choose to write Peer Gynt into the film adaptation of An Enemy of the People, as a play-within-the-play? To celebrate Katrine’s birthday, the family of three – Tomas, Katrine and Eilif – goes to the National Theatre in Oslo to watch an Ibsen play, a Chinese production of Peer Gynt.

Results

Conclusion