The story is told in a simple way but it is a deeply painful production to watch. And when a child comes into the auditorium with the parents, sees the character of Little Eyolf on stage, with the red and white lights blinking, with the disheveled hair of Kate Pendry and the virtuoso guitar works by Audun Aschim, the air is rent with the shrill cries of the baby who just wants to run! Welcome to the surreal world of Little Eyolf renamed Cripplewolf by the Norwegian pair of Kate Pendry and Audun Aschim.
It was a very beautiful evening at the expansive premises of the Brazilian Embassy as the Norwegian Embassy in collaboration with the Jos Repertory Theatre and SYV MIL staged the Nigerian debut of Henrik Ibsen’s Cripplewolf which story is based on the 1894 story by Henrik Ibsen, Norway’s master storyteller and words craftsman. A little baby is born into the Allmers family. His father resolves to elegantly raise the little boy with beautiful brilliant eyes but the boy is paralyzed in one of his legs making his life a very difficult one and a very unusual one considering the times. What do you do to a little boy who despite his travails wants to live the normal life of a child? His father knows this is not possible especially when he believes that the boy’s deformity is as a result of the ‘irresponsibility’ of his parents? What is this irresponsibility? Eyolf’s parents were engaged in conjugal matters and Eyolf fell off a table! His father is racked by guilt and his resolution is to turn the paralyzed boy into loftier and great intellectual pursuits. In the midst of this conflict enters the Rat-Wife, a woman who is capable of enchanting rats into the sea. Her services are rejected by the Allmers household who do not notice that at her departure, the Rat-Wife is followed by Little Eyolf. More troubles were to come as Eyolf’s sister Asta who had always wanted the boy to leave so that she will command all the attention and love in the house is being admired by Borgheim, an engineer who wants to marry Asta. While Asta is trying to make up her mind, they are distracted by shouts from the sea which reveal that Little Eyolf had drowned while following the Rat-Wife into the sea. The tragic story unfolding in the home of the Allmers then focuses on Asta and Borgheim who decide to get married and leave even as Eyolf’s father had hoped that they would remain so that Borgheim will replace Eyolf in his heart and devotion. With everyone looking for a way out, Rita the wife in the Allmers household decides to remain so that together, she and her husband can atone for their guilt. It is a story of love, betrayal, guilt, passion and unrequited desires.
The play is not your typical run of the mill production. A play written for six characters is performed by two characters with Kate Pendry’s voice resonating and taking us through the different characters of father, mother, sister and most importantly the tortured little soul, Eyolf. In her character portrayal, Kate even mimics and shows us the crippled leg that she bent throughout the performance which was highly complimented by the electric guitar works and rhythms created by Audun who was working three different instruments on stage – his guitar, his laptop and his mini-piano/sound board. It was at this point that we were not sure which exactly is Kate’s portrayal of Little Eyolf and the electric guitar works. There was a very beautiful interplay between voice and instruments which made the surreal reality of the play and the world of the play a roller coaster of emotions that made the play a beauty to watch and a terrible pain to digest.
A member of the audience remarked that “such well-made plays are also very difficult to imagine its emotional toll on the actors”. For the Jos Repertory Theatre and her team of actors who are in Abuja to share the experience, one of the remarkable takeaways was the virtuoso performance by two actors sharing a 19th century story in the 21st with only two characters on stage aided by technology and her very different dimensions and effects on the human psyche.
The Norwegian tour continues with workshops, musical creations and adaptations of two of Ibsen’s works The Master Builder and Ghosts which are being translated into Pidgin English by a team of Nigerian actors and the Norwegians. Another performance is scheduled for the diplomatic community before the pair depart Nigeria for Norway.
In the end, “Cripplewolf” is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. It reminds us that even in the darkest of times, there is always the possibility of redemption, if only we have the courage to seek it.
Together, Pendry and Aschim transformed Ibsen’s 1894 classic into a modern-day masterpiece. Through their minimalist approach, they distilled the essence of the original work while infusing it with a contemporary sensibility. The result was a theatrical experience that was both timeless and timely, resonating with audiences across cultures and generations.