ABOUT THE PLAY

 

Ralph Fiennes plays the title role in Henrik Ibsen's epic BRAND, a passionate portrait of the struggle between faith and human will. In their first collaboration for over a decade Adrian Noble directs Fiennes and a superlative seventeen strong cast.

 

Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes is considered among the leading stage and film actors of his generation. His most recent theatre work includes a sold-out run at the National Theatre in The Talking Cure and the title roles of Richard II and Coriolanus in the Gainsborough season for the Almeida. He is internationally recognised for his film work including acclaimed roles in Schindler's List, The English Patient and Red Dragon, released earlier this year.

 

CAST &CREATIVE

 

Mayor - Oliver Cotton

Villager/Man - Jim Creighton

Villager/Man - James Curran

Doctor/Provost - Alan David

Man/Villager - Ian Drysdale

Mother/Villager - Susan Engel

Woman/Villager - Sarah Everard

Brand - Ralph Fiennes

Gypsy Woman/Woman - Jane Guernier

Man/Villager - Colin Haigh

Guide/Sexton - Sidney Livingstone

Woman/Villager -Jennifer McEvoy

Ejnar - Alistair Petrie

Agnes - Claire Price

Gerd - Laura Rees

Schoolmaster - Clifford Rose

Woman From Headland/Villager - Karen Traynor

Other Parts Played by Members of The Company

 

Author - Henrick Ibsen

Director - Adrian Noble

Designer - Peter McKintosh

Lighting - Peter Mumford

Music - Mia Soteriou

Sound - Mic Pool

Movement - Sue Lefton

 

QUOTES & REVIEWS

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The Independent – Rhoda Koenig

 

Fiennes brings force and grace to Ibsen s harsh, tormented hero.

 

Compelling

 

Alan David is excellent as the doctor.

 

The mountain that is this great play and the intelligence of its lead actor. There are many times when Ibsen s statements of human error and longing strike hard enough to make us gasp, and Fiennes never fails to send them winging to us with force and grace. Through the stale, perfumed air of the West End, Brand blows like a frigid, bracing wind.

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The Times – Ian Johns

 

Fiennes revels in the part with every line, inflection and gesture finely honed, his face a riot of grimaces, curled lips and furrowed brows. He s a virtuoso at describing the exterior results of his inner turbulence.

 

Good support from Claire Price as his wife and disciple, turning movingly from inspired young woman to careworn wife.

 

 

The Guardian – Michael Billington

 

****  (4 stars)

 

Ralph Fiennes  finest moment.

 

The greatness of Ibsen s 1865 play [is] fully realised in Adrian Noble s production and Ralph Fiennes performance.

 

Beautifully designed and lit by Peter McKintosh and Peter Mumford respectively.

 

This is Ralph Fiennes finest hour on stage.

 

Claire Price s performance as Agnes, filled with a rapt submission that is anything but supine, adds to the sense of the tragic cost of undeviating idealism. A monumental evening.

 

 

Daily Telegraph – Charles Spencer

 

Fiennes has never been better than he is here; wired, blazing-eyed and exuding a self-lacerating intensity.

 

[Adrian Nobles] swansong production of Ibsen s Brand is a glorious occasion: daring, deeply felt, powerfully affecting and blessed with a truly tremendous performance from Ralph Fiennes in the title role that those who see it will never forget.

 

A return to 24-carat quality in London s commercial theatre.

 

What makes this play remarkable even among [Ibsen s] powerful work is its thrilling account of embattled religious faith and its passionate attempt to understand the relationship between God and man.

 

It is as close as the theatre has come to matching the raw spiritual intensity of Gerard Manley Hopkin s dark sonnets – and every bit as moving.

 

What brings the show alive is the power and the simplicity of his direction and the passion and commitment of the acting.

 

Claire Price is superb too, as his loyal ands loving wife, providing this harsh play with moments of beautiful and heart-catching tenderness.

 

There is strong support from Oliver Cotton as a splendidly corrupt mayor and Alan David, doubling brilliantly as a kind doctor and a worldly cleric.

 

In the final act, Ibsen s merciless masterpiece becomes positively transcendent and Noble captures its visionary quality with the simplest of resources and a stunning climactic coup de theatre.

 

This is a night of theatre that sets the imagination ablaze.

 

Financial Times – Alistair Macaulay

Thursday 5th June 2003

 

Ian Drysdale makes great impact as Brand s most devoted parishioner, and Susan Engel is outstanding as Brand s mother.

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Evening Standard – Nicholas de Jongh

 

Ibsen s mighty poetic drama.

 

Clare Price s touchingly vulnerable Agnes.

 

Memorable Susan Engel.

 

Its rarity value is a recommendation.