On Ibsen and Strindberg: The Reversed Telescope
This book adopts a comparative approach to examine some curious and original aspects of the dramaturgy and the scenic conception of two great Nordic writers, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. As far as Ibsen is concerned, the book looks at the connection between his works and the European Risorgimenti, the anthropological relationship with the rites and atmospheres of Southern Italy, and the problematic link with theatrical tradition. With regards to Strindberg, light is shed on his intense identification with Euripides, but also with his “enemy” Ibsen, and his interest in modern theatrical reformers. There is an almost “archaeological” attention to the first “great actors” – Betty Hennings, Eleonora Duse, Ermete Zacconi – who interpreted Ibsen and Strindberg’s dramas, and to some of the more modern of Ibsen’s stage sets put forward by those who sought to go beyond his bourgeois formula. Ibsen and Strindberg are read and interpreted from a cultural point of view which is far removed from their historical and geographical setting, and are often observed through a reversed telescope which sheds light paradoxically on revealing aspects of their work.
Franco Perrelli is Full Professor of Performing Arts in the Department of Humanities at the University of Turin, Italy. He is a specialist in Scandinavian and modern theatre. In 2009, he won the Pirandello Prize for his book I maestri della ricerca teatrale. Il Living, Grotowski, Barba e Brook (2007) and the Strindbergspris of the Swedish Strindbergssällskap in 2014. Many of his essays have been translated into various languages. His publications include William Bloch. La regia e la musica della vita (2001); Echi nordici di grandi attori italiani (2004); La seconda creazione. Fondamenti della regia teatrale (2005); Ludvig Josephson e l’Europa teatrale (2012); Bricks to Build a Teaterlaboratorium. Odin Teatret and Chr. Ludvigsen (2013); Poetiche e teorie del teatro (2015); Strindberg l’italiano (2015); and Le origini del teatro moderno. Da Jarry a Brecht (2016).
"In his sharp evaluation of the play, Perrelli underlines that the influence of the tarantella crosses the limits of the specific scene, provoking a spiritual evolution for the characters: the archaic ritual releases a catharsis; the essential fury of the tarantella scene channels itself into everyday rhythms, with a new consciousness and critical rationalization, and here “the modern tragedy” can start."
Maria Pia Pagani, Sinestesieonline
"Franco Perrelli often refers to the judgments and reviews of the criticism around the work of the actors (not only of Duse), but rightly historicizes these "opinions" on the basis of the observation of the context of the Scandinavian audience. The comparison between Ibsen's and Strindberg's point of view, not only dramaturgical, is useful in the same direction, together with the highlighting of the heavy skirmishes of the second against the first, based on an acute dramaturgical "jealousy"; so sharp as to push him to the ridiculous sentence rightly pointed out by Perrelli: "What are Nora, Mrs Alving, Rebecca West? Irresponsible criminals. This and much more can be read in the first five chapters of this volume."
Siro Ferrone, Florence University Press
"All in all, Perrelli’s articles offer the reader insights on the impact of Italy on Ibsen and Strindberg, on reception and the importance of star actors for the fame and propagation of foreign authors, as well as on how the experimental scene after the 1960s identified in Ibsen a fellow rebel, more than a master of conventional theatre. […] the reader gains a lot from Perrelli’s essays, which are written with manifest love of the material and passion for scholarship."
Ibsen Studies (2019), vol. 20
"Franco Perrelli’s 'On Ibsen and Strindberg: The Reversed Telescope' provides international Ibsen and Strindberg scholarship with many new aspects. [...] Especially important is his presentation of new arguments for the critics of 'A Doll’s House'."
Roland Lysell, Stockholm University
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