Peer Gynt NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (88)
See it if You're an Ibsen fanatic and don't want to miss a well acted NYC production of a less common play.
Don't see it if It's long with no intermission. Abstract and confusing, an intermission would've been nice if only to discuss & coalesce what we just saw.
See it if you want a fresh, abbreviated take on the Ibsen classic.
Don't see it if you need literal staging and scenery to grasp a story.
See it if You want to see a very interesting and beautiful staging of this show.
Don't see it if You want to see a good translation of this play.
See it if you want to see some great acting and watching a cast utilize a simplistic set creatively.
Don't see it if you do not like shows that will leave you with more questions than answers.
See it if you're interested in experimentally adapted Ibsen, love terrific acting, love John Doyle, are open to an opaque meditation on life.
Don't see it if it's your first experience with Peer Gynt, opaque/expressionist narratives annoy you, you don't want to see a 2-hour intermissionless show.
See it if You're an Ibsen completist because I don't see why this play is ever performed. Or a fan of Ebert since he's on stage nearly the whole time.
Don't see it if You value any semblance of storytelling or sense of coherence.
See it if You don't mind your Ibsen truncated (severely) and thus lacking in context. Gabriel Ebert is excellent. A couple of scenes were riveting.
Don't see it if It's almost 2 hours without an intermission- would have been better to keep more text and have a break. Very hard to follow what's happening
See it if You want to see Gabriel Ebert handle a lengthy, lengthy role; are a super-fan of Ibsen & unfamiliar with Gynt
Don't see it if You can't stand shows with fairy tale characters or with lengthy monologues, hard to tell who the characters are, pointless shows
Critic Reviews (23)
"This one runs only 110 minutes without an intermission, but it sometimes seems like five hours. By stripping the play to its bare bones, Doyle captures essentials, but the setting seems puny for a play with such lofty ambitions...Admittedly 'Peer Gynt' is an exceptionally challenging, but cutting it down to what Doyle has done doesn’t seem to be the answer...In truth I left more exhausted than enlightened."
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"It was the cast that initially drew me to the show...They do manage to create a few beautiful moments. But there aren't enough of them to make for a satisfying whole…The meandering tale is supposed to chronicle Gynt's search for his true self but Doyle's concept left me totally lost. And since there was no scenery to orient me and no costumes to signal when the actors were assuming different characters, I eventually gave up even trying to understand it."
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"Gabriel Ebert’s the best thing about the production. Ebert conveys the young Peer with high-kicking brio and excess of energy, yet in the quieter scenes his maturity comes to the fore...Although Doyle’s minimalist, modernist approach may force one to focus on the words, the loss of color and variety risks dulling one’s senses and resulting in confusion. To anyone who has experienced a full production, this 'Peer Gynt' seems intent on sensory deprivation."
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“Director John Doyle serves up ‘Peer’ with his signature spare staging...Peer is played by the talented Gabriel Ebert in an inexhaustible and exhausting performance...In his challenging and fraught search for himself he twists his body, his voice, and his emotions. Ebert does what he can. But this prop-less, set-less, costume-less, several-hours-less production is also missing, in the end, a compelling reason to watch his contortions.”
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"Director Doyle is noted for his minimalist productions...However, in the case of this production, more might have been more. I missed the section, deleted here, of Anitra the beautiful Arabian woman and her seductive dance; nor does Solveig sing her song...Performances are fine, with an outstanding contribution by the energetic and athletic Gabriel Ebert."
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"This is a shrunken version of the epic verse drama...In the role of Peer, Gabriel Ebert runs the gamut of human experience and of affect and emotion...It would be great to see Ebert in a fully realized version of this tantalizing, confusing, and iconic drama...I wish Classic Stage had brought to Ibsen’s 'Peer Gynt' a broad, determined embrace of the play’s epic scope and complexities. Without that, and in spite of Ebert’s great efforts, the play seems irrelevant, even silly."
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“CSC’s awkward adaptation of the misadventures of Henrik Ibsen’s anti-hero...The problem isn’t extreme cutting...Rather, it is overcompensation...This production’s modernizing of Peer makes him comes across as a narcissist and spoiled brat...Gabriel Ebert does what he can. However, when the Tony Award winner must use an exaggerated stage whisper for his id/inner self, he sounds false...'Peer Gynt' didn’t have to be traditional. It only needed to not try to be everything.”
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