Reviewed by:

• Byggmeister Solness by Henrik Ibsen
• Andrew Friedman

The words “Byggmeister Angst” flashed in neon above the stage throughout Vegard Vinge and Ida Müller’s eight-and-a-half-hour performance of Henrik Ibsen’s Byggmeister Solness (The Master Builder, 1892). The production was the ninth installment of the duo’s Ibsen-Saga (2006-), a self-proclaimed six-hundred-year project to stage Ibsen’s œuvre as interconnected performances unified by a singular aesthetic. The two performances of Byggmeister Solness I attended uncharacteristically abandoned the Saga’s use of artistic ambition as a pretext to challenge institutional limits. Now on their second production of a five-year residency at Oslo’s Det Norske Teatret, Vinge and Müller officially reside in the resource-rich belly of the institutional beast. Emerging from Oslo’s free scene—and the relatively permissive environs of Berlin—the Saga’s oppositional aesthetics now share a season with a major theatre’s marquee production of the Disney musical Frost. Rather than stage a grand Ibsenian conflict, Vinge and Müller dramatized their angsty acquiescence to the institution hosting them by transforming The Master Builder into a musical about safety.

Ragnar and the builders sing the opening overture in Byggmeister Solness. (Photo: Ole Herman Andersen.)

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Solness oversees his builders in Byggmeister Solness. (Photo: Ole Herman Andersen.)

The production retained the Saga’s hallmark aesthetics and associative dramaturgy. Directed by Vinge, designed by Müller, and composed by Trond Reinholdtsen (all of whom performed in the piece as well), the production combined cartoon-ish artificiality (hand-painted scenography and masked performers gesturing to prerecorded text and sound effects) and extreme reality (destruction, excreta, and stunts). Solness was an old vampiric god in a diaper; his gory crimes and the lives of his victims were presented in stage action and in live and prerecorded films. Solness drank the blood of his apprentice Ragnar Brovik and beat Old Brovik to a pulp, used his assistant Kaja as a canvas for his “artistic juice” (ejaculate), sexually abused the prepubescent Hilda Wangel in spectacles evoking coprophilia and suicide, and, with the help of Dr. Herdel, sedated his wife Aline, who mourned their deceased daughters. These brutalities were filtered through the Saga’s associative dramaturgy, which interwove Ibsen’s text with complementary narratives from film, performance art, and the theatrical and operatic canons. The disenchanted Ragnar doubled as Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver (1976), Aline as the scorned wife Louise Schumacher from Network (1976), Solness as the pitiless banker Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (1987), and Hilda as a Disney princess in a white dress and tiara. Using a microphone, Vinge directed each night’s singular performance in real time from the stage, booth, and auditorium while conversing with or criticizing audiences and technicians. Ibsen’s work was, as always, distilled to an overarching ethos that governs the Saga’s limit-testing theatre: the artist’s desire for self-realization within an oppressive society.

What Byggmeister Solness tested was Vinge and Müller’s capacity to be institutional. Rather than rebel like Ibsenian ideologues, they created a production that flaunted its obedience, exposing restrictions through conspicuous compliance. The show shockingly started and ended at its advertised time (a first!), because in Norway, as Vinge satirically announced, “the actors have to be in bed by 10:30 p.m.” Most impactful were the production’s demonstrations of safety protocols that reframed the Saga’s typically dangerous stunts as acts of risk management. Midway through the show, Aline was set on fire. But first, we watched the performer nonchalantly apply flame-retardant gel to her skin while a fireman wrapped her in fireproof clothes, readied extinguishers and a fire blanket, and then wiped accelerant on her body. Once ignited, Aline flailed to ear-splitting screams, briefly banishing the procedural prelude from my mind—and likely others’ as well. After extinguishing the flames, however, the performer smirked at the audience...

 审阅者：

• 
  亨利克·易卜生的《Byggmeister Solness》
•  安德鲁·弗里德曼

在 Vegard Vinge 和 Ida Müller 长达八个半小时的亨利克·易卜生的《Byggmeister Solness》（《建筑大师》，1892 年）表演中，“Byggmeister Angst”字样在舞台上方的霓虹灯中闪烁。该作品是二人组《易卜生传奇》（2006 年至今）的第九部，该剧自称是一个历时六百年的项目，旨在将易卜生的作品呈现为由单一美学统一起来的相互关联的表演。我参加的 Byggmeister Solness 的两场演出一反常态地放弃了传奇以艺术野心为借口挑战制度限制。现在，文格和穆勒在奥斯陆挪威剧院进行了为期五年驻场演出的第二次演出，正式驻扎在资源丰富的机构野兽的肚子里。从奥斯陆的自由场景和柏林相对宽松的环境中脱颖而出，传奇的对立美学现在与迪士尼音乐剧《冰霜》的大型剧院的大片演出共享一个季节。文奇和穆勒并没有上演一场盛大的易卜生式冲突，而是通过将《建筑大师》改造成一部关于安全的音乐剧，戏剧化地表现了他们对主办机构的焦虑默许。

拉格纳和建设者们唱着《Byggmeister Solness》的开场序曲。 （照片：奥勒·赫尔曼·安徒生。）

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索尔内斯在比格迈斯特索尔内斯监督他的建造者。 （照片：奥勒·赫尔曼·安徒生。）

该作品保留了传奇的标志性美学和联想戏剧结构。该作品由 Vinge 执导，Müller 设计，Trond Reinholdtsen 作曲（他们也在该作品中表演），作品结合了卡通式的人工（手绘场景和蒙面表演者对着预先录制的文本和声音效果做手势）和极端现实（破坏、排泄物和特技）。索尔尼斯是一位穿着尿布的古老吸血鬼神。他的血腥罪行和受害者的生活通过舞台表演以及现场和预先录制的电影来呈现。索尔尼斯喝了他的学徒拉格纳·​​布罗维克的血，把老布罗维克打得稀烂，用他的助手卡贾作为他的“艺术汁液”（射精）的画布，性虐待了青春期前的希尔达·万格尔，戴着眼镜，引发了恋粪癖和自杀，并且，在赫德尔医生的帮助下，他的妻子艾琳服用了镇静剂，艾琳正在哀悼死去的女儿。这些暴行通过传奇的联想戏剧手法过滤出来，将易卜生的文本与电影、表演艺术、戏剧和歌剧经典的互补叙事交织在一起。心灰意冷的拉格纳在《出租车司机》（1976）中饰演特拉维斯·比克尔，艾琳在《网络》（1976）中饰演被蔑视的妻子路易丝·舒马赫，索尔内斯在《华尔街》（1987）中饰演无情的银行家戈登·盖柯，希尔达则饰演身着白衣的迪士尼公主。礼服和头饰。文奇使用麦克风在舞台、展位和礼堂实时指挥每晚的独特表演，同时与观众和技术人员交谈或批评。易卜生的作品一如既往地提炼出一种主导传奇的极限测试戏剧的总体精神：艺术家在压迫社会中实现自我的渴望。

Byggmeister Solness 测试的是 Vinge 和 Müller 的制度化能力。他们没有像易卜生理论家那样反叛，而是创作了一部标榜服从的作品，通过明显的服从来暴露限制。该剧令人震惊地在广告时间开始和结束（这是第一次！），因为在挪威，正如 Vinge 讽刺地宣布的那样，“演员必须在晚上 10:30 之前上床睡觉。”最有影响力的是制作组对安全协议的演示，该协议将传奇故事中典型的危险特技重新定义为风险管理行为。演出进行到一半时，艾琳被点燃。但首先，我们看到表演者若无其事地在她的皮肤上涂上阻燃凝胶，而消防员则用防火服裹住她，准备好灭火器和灭火毯，然后在她的身上擦拭助燃剂。一旦被点燃，艾琳就会发出震耳欲聋的尖叫声，短暂地将程序前奏从我的脑海中驱逐——也可能是其他人的脑海中。然而，在扑灭火焰后，表演者对观众傻笑着……