I cannot write letters!
In 2004 it is 100 years since ’Letters from Henrik Ibsen’ were published by Gyldendal publishing house. How did Ibsen experience seeing his own private confidences being presented to the public and open to each and everyone?
Directed by Morten Jostad / Tom Remlov, Dinamo Story & Den Nationale Scene, Teater Ibsen
What did he feel by the sight of these two books, he who in so many ways had led a reserved and secluded life behind his ’Ibsen-mask’? The experience must have been reinforced by Ibsen’s own situation in 1904. At the time he was an aging and strongly reduced man, after having suffered several strokes.
It is Ibsen, the stroke patient, that Morten Jostad has made his point of departure in his new one man performance. The man of no words that is being confronted with himself in the words of the collection of his private letters.
Jostad has dramatized and made himself a name with portraits of writers like Petter Dass, Ludvig Holberg, Søren Kierkegaard and H. C. Andersen. With ’I cannot write letters!’ Jostad continues his research into Ibsen. This started with ’The Epic Brand’ performed by Øystein Røger and himself at the 1998 Ibsen Stage Festival. This production is Morten Jostad’s fifth production for the Ibsen Stage Festival.