The Lady from the Sea

Doctor Wangel lives in a small coastal town with his wife Ellida and his two daughters from his first marriage. Ellida has been depressed and off balance ever since they lost their newborn child, and doctor Wangel is worried about her mental state. She was once engaged to a sailor – The Stranger – and even if he’s probably long dead, Ellida has a feeling of guilt for having broken her promise to him. When the Stranger turns up unexpectedly, she feels anguish as well as attraction. Wangel tries to hold her back, but Ellida declares that he will never be able to keep her by force. When Wangel finally gives her the freedom of choice, she feels at the same time that she belongs with him.

In Runar Hodne’s production we are not in Skjoldviken towards the end of the 19th century, but in the Paint Shop in 2004. The Stranger is cut out, that is: he is present as a phantom in the mind of Ellida Wangel. And Ellida’s agonies are not unique. We meet three couples of about the same age who struggle with the same problem: the past throws shadows over the future and makes it impossible to love. The mother is dead, the stepmother is no mother to them, and the doctor tries to calm their temperament. Hilde’s bitchy irony no longer has its once potent effect. The action takes place on the day when everything is falling apart. Some hellish 24 hours when everybody is being forced to make it a day of reckoning. In order to accentuate the parallelism in the three love stories Runar Hodne has cross cut the dialogues and turned them into a mirror of each other. Three couples that sail around each other like ships.

Directed by Runar Hodne. Set and costume consultant: Kari Gravklev. Make-up: Hege Ramstad. Dramaturg: Gerd Stahl.

With: Doctor Wangel - Per Egil Aske, Ellida Wangel - Gisken Armand, Bolette - Ine Jansen, Hilde - Andrea Bræin Hovig, Headmaster Arnholm - Fridtjov Såheim, Lyngstrand - Kim Sørensen.