The Adventures of Peer Gynt
Premiere, May 2024
 

Note from the Artistic Director:

I first encountered the music of Edvard Grieg as a young ballet student performing a ballet variation of Peer Gynt, based on Henrik Ibsen’s Norwegian play. I later discovered Billy Strayhorn arranged a jazz interpretation of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and created a short dance work to the score that was originally performed in 2008. In 2024 I decided to revisit that work, but this time, dove a little deeper into my research and allowed the work to expand. Through this process I discovered an American adaptation of the play, The Adventures of Peer Gynt. Seeing the story through a different lens, I decided to take on the challenge of condensing it and placing it in a new context, telling the story through theatrical jazz. Ultimately, what I am drawn to in Peer Gynt are the many life lessons that are present, how self-obsession leads to emptiness, the impact of the love of a parent, (or lack thereof), the sacrificial love and forgiveness of Solveig, and how so often we are searching for the next best thing only to realize much too late that the best thing was right in front of us.

​

​

Synopsis:

Peer Gynt is the son of a poor widow whose father abandoned him and his mother in search of wealth and success. As Peer follows in his father’s footsteps, his mother develops bitterness and disappointment in him. Continually searching for love and approval, Peer ultimately begins to find comfort by falling more and more in love with himself until he meets Solveig, a new girl in town at Ingrid’s wedding. Showing up as the ultimate “wedding crasher,” Peer meets Solveig and realizes there is something different about her, but nonetheless carries on being his arrogant self and runs away with the Bride. After an affair with the bride, he begins a journey of self destruction through both real and absurd situations where death is always near, until he finally meets his fate. Peer’s final encounter with death is his breaking point, as he realizes he has wasted his life. He journeys back home to find that Solveig has long been waiting for his return. Though much time has passed and they near the end of their lives, Peer experiences the love and forgiveness of Solveig as they share one last moment together.

​

​

All Photos: Bill Cameron