Three characters share the lead role in the Immediate Family’s streamlined production of PEER GYNT (photo by Britannie Bond)
Alchemical Theatre Laboratory
104 West 14th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Friday, December 19, 8:00, and Saturday, December 20, 3:00 & 8:00, $17
www.theimmediatefam.com
www.atlnyc.com
Founded by four graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Rep acting and directing program, the Immediate Family follows up its 2013 Fringe production, Perceval, with another inventive, stripped-down version of a classic story, Peer Gynt. Adapted by Scott Raker from the English translation by William and Charles Archer, Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 “dramatic poem” has been condensed from the five-act, thirty-eight-scene original, which can run four or five hours, into ninety swift, intermissionless minutes by an engaging company whose charm and energy are contagious. Set in a small all-white studio at the Alchemical Theatre Laboratory on West Fourteenth St., the tale of a young Norwegian lad with a rather creative imagination features no props, and most of the characters are dressed in white; Peer Gynt is played alternately by Jude Sandy, Lizzie King-Hall, and Raker, each donning Peer’s red vest when it is their turn to take the lead. Otherwise, they serve as a kind of Greek chorus while Gynt deals with his overbearing mother (Jessica Crandall), who is tired of being embarrassed by his lies; Ingrid (Rebecca Hirota), who wants to run away with him even though she is about to wed Mudd (David Jacobs); a green-clad troll princess (Hirota) whose father is the Mountain King (Rudi Utter); and Peer Gynt’s true love, the shy, guitar-carrying preacher’s daughter, Solveig (Brittannie Bond). But Peer Gynt, enamored with his dreams and the folktales he heard as a child, cannot settle down, preferring to go off on one adventure after another, some of them more reality-based than others.
Sandy, King-Hall, and Raker are simply splendid as Peer, their eyes wide with hope, smiles as big as a crescent moon. The cast enters and leaves through three white doors, sometimes huddling right behind the audience, which is seated on all four sides of the intimate horizontal space where the action takes place. Regen’s playful direction includes lovely choreography, from a wedding dance to the interaction between the three Peer Gynt portrayers to a spectacular bit of contemporary dance from the troll king’s daughter. In the far corner of the room, pianist Mackenzie Shivers plays original music inspired by Edvard Grieg’s familiar score, including variations on “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” accompanied by percussionist Michael Propster. The section when Peer Gynt leaves to become a successful businessman is nearly always problematic, and it is here as well, but the devilish Lean One (Khris Lewin) soon arrives to help bring the story, which is also about the very nature of storytelling itself, home to its inevitable conclusion. Ultimately, Peer Gynt is about self-realization and being true to oneself, and that all rings true in the Immediate Family’s charming adaptation.