Veteran Canadian actor John Neville started planning The Ibsen Project with his director friend Graham Cozzubbo three years ago. The idea, hatched while Cozzubbo was directing Neville in Samuel Beckett’s haunting masterpiece Krapp’s Last Tape, is quite simple: over the course of three consecutive evenings, stage complete readings of Henrik Ibsen’s last three plays. Now, three years later, the work is almost finished, and the project is just days away from opening at Hart House.
Neville speaks with a sense of urgency when asked why they chose to showcase Ibsen’s final three plays: “They’re classics, but they’re almost never done!” he exclaims in the lobby of Hart House Theatre. “We could have picked just one, but we wanted to do his last three… nobody ever does these plays.” Neville seems genuinely concerned that modern classics are being ignored by directors and producers and are in need of revisiting. He passionately argues that Ibsen’s final works, written at the end of the nineteenth century, are still relevant today: “They are modern. They’re not antiquated, they’re about real things, real relations, there’s so much in them.”
Neville and Cozzubbo have decided to split directorial duties, with Neville directing Little Eyolf, Cozzubbo handling John Gabriel Borkman, and both men joining forces for Ibsen’s final work, the chilling When We Dead Awaken.
Ibsen, the famed Norwegian playwright, is best remembered for creating dark and often disturbing characters with a high degree of realism in his dramas. The psychology behind his writing is so deep and convincing that his characters have been studied and written about by many, including the king of psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud.
Neville, a seasoned veteran of both stage and screen (he was the Well-Manicured Man for several seasons on The X-Files and plays the title role in the recently opened indie flick Moving Malcolm), is quite is familiar with the work of Henrik Ibsen. He has already directed Ibsen’s fourth-last play The Master Builder in Edmonton, and acted the lead role in that play in Halifax. Neville says that it is important for both actors and directors to tackle classics like Ibsen because they offer what he describes as “incredible training”.
Born in England, Neville received his own “incredible training” while acting at London’s Old Vic Theatre, where he claims to have done “nothing but Shakespeare for six years!” However, he is quick to announce that he is now “passionately Canadian” having moved here on a whim in 1975. Since then Neville has lived in Ottawa, Edmonton, Halifax, Stratford, and now Toronto.
The Ibsen Project is billed as a staged reading, but don’t be fooled-this is hardly your typical dry read. With sets and lights designed by Dora Award winner Robert Thomson and Sharon E. Reid, the actors will hardly be unsupported while on stage. True, there will be scripts in hand, but blocking and line delivery have been in rehearsal for almost two weeks, and the casts contain some of the finest and most respected actors in the city (including Allegra Fulton, Randy Hughson, Dixie Seatle, Robin Ward, Brenda Bazinet and many others).
One name in particular, David Gardner, should be familiar to most U of T theatre-goers as the director of this fall’s stellar production of As You Like It. Under the direction of both Neville and Cozzubbo in When We Dead Awake, Gardner portrays Arnold Rubek, a once-successful artist who has become frustrated, stagnant, and unwisely married to a much younger girl. The role is dark and complex and often thought to be a biographic reflection of Ibsen himself.
Neville is fast to acknowledge the hard work of all the actors involved. “The actors have been so wonderful in being well-acquainted with the script,” he says. “They’re such wonderful actors that the good plays will jump out.”
Neville expects the three performances to be well-attended. He cites a growing public interest in discovering or re-discovering the genius of Ibsen’s classics as a prime motivator. He also notes that the Norwegian Consulate has taken a special interest in the project and is sponsoring one of the three readings, John Gabriel Borkman, Ibsen’s second-last play.
Although The Ibsen Project marks Neville’s first collaboration with Hart House Theatre (he is no stranger to campus theatre, however, having taught acting at Ryerson), he notes that he has thoroughly enjoyed working in the space, and believes that Hart House’s commitment to staging the classics is a truly worthy cause for which he will “continue to be available.” All the proceeds from The Ibsen Project will be contributed towards the Hart House Theatre Endowment Fund.
When asked, Neville says that there are no concrete plans to mount any of the plays as a full-scale production yet, but quickly adds, “They’re ready, practically. All they need is money.”
The Ibsen Project opens with Little Eyolf on Friday and wraps up with When We Dead Awake on Saturday. With Halloween just around the corner, these haunting plays are sure to summon the ghosts of Ibsen’s lesser-known masterpieces onto the stage for curious audiences to examine.
The Ibsen Project runs Oct. 24 (Little Eyolf), 25 (John Gabriel Borkman), and 26 (When We Dead Awaken) at 8 pm at Hart House Theatre. Tickets are $15 for students at the box office, or call (416) 978-8668.
