Gertrud (play)

Gertrud (play)

Gertrud is a Swedish 1906 play (drama), in three parts, by author and playwright Hjalmar Söderberg.

tory description

The play is a modern relationship drama (in Sweden often considered as one of the very best Swedish plays ever written) with the middle-age Gertrud in the centre and about her relationships with three different men; her husband Gustav Kanning (a politician), her older, former lover Gabriel Lidman (a business man) and her new found love Erland Jansson (a young concert pianist): men who have desired — and desire her — in three different ways.

The first act is set in Gustaf Kanning's study at home where Gertrud in the dark, in the first scene, awaits her husband's return from work as she has something important to tell: she's going to leave him. How will Kanning react to this? How will her former love interest — who suddenly returns from a long trip overseas — react? Is her new found love worth the sacrifice she is about to make?

The play is a penetrating drama on life, love and passion. About the feeling of being trapped and confined in a marriage, the need of love and the search of THE LOVE; but does it exist? How does it show itself and what is real love anyway? Is it a fundamental right to love and be loved? It's also a play about how we all value love and closeness in a relationship — and the need and importance of it in our lives — so completely different. Women and men, and from man to man and woman to woman. Why is it all so difficult?

The original production in Sweden premiered on February 13 1907 at the old Royal Dramatic Theatre featuring Gerda Lundequist in the title role.

Characters

*Gertrud Kanning
*Gustav Kanning
*Gabriel Lidman
*Erland Jansson
*Kanning's mother
*The White Shape

From play

:"Look at me a little.":"Am I beautiful?":"No.":"But I have loved."

:"Look at me a little.":"Am I young?":"No.":"But I have loved."

:"Look at me a little.":"Am I alive?":"No.":"But I have loved."

(The White Shape, Act II)

:"I believe in the lust of the flesh and the incurable desolation of the soul." (Gertrud reminding Lidman of the words he once uttered to her).

:"And it didn't cost you a thing to tell me this? It was easy and simple? Like cancelling a performance..." (Kanning to Gertrud)

:"You are not a real woman. A woman should lie and smile and caress. Yes, caress - and you "know" how. But you do it for your own pleasure. "And" you know it! Well, "that" is not for a woman to know." (Jansson to Gertrud)

:KANNING: It doesn't sound as if you loved her that particularly much, your... wife.:LIDMAN: Love? - Nonsense.

Notable productions

*The original 1907 staging with Gerda Lundequist as Gertrud, the Royal Dramatic Theatre.
*The 1953 Dramaten-staging with Eva Dahlbeck as Gertrud.
*The 1999 TV-theatre adaption (SVT) with Marie Richardson as Gertrud.

Film adaption

*1964 - "Gertrud" (directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Gertrud Elisabeth Mara — [née Schmeling] (23 February 1749 20 January 1833 Reval) was a German singer born in Kassel, the daughter of a poor musician named Schmeling. From him she learnt to play the violin, and while still a child her playing at the fair at Frankfurt was …   Wikipedia

  • Gertrud (film) — Infobox Film name = Gertrud image size = caption = director = Carl Theodor Dreyer producer = Jørgen Nielsen writer = Carl Theodor Dreyer Hjalmar Söderberg (play) narrator = starring = Nina Pens Rode Bendt Rothe Ebbe Rode Baard Owe Axel Strøbye… …   Wikipedia

  • Gertrud Fridh — Born in Gothenburg, Fridh later studied acting at Gothenburg City Theatre s acting school 1941 44. She worked in the 1940s and 50s at the city theatres in Gothenburg and Malmö; at the latter she came in contact with director Ingmar Bergman who… …   Wikipedia

  • Gertrude — or Gertrud may refer to:*The underwater phone used by submarines for communication *Gertrude (Hamlet), Hamlet s mother * Gertrud (novel), by Hermann Hesse * Gertrud (play), by Hjalmar Söderberg * Gertrud (film), a 1964 Danish film based on… …   Wikipedia

  • People associated with Anne Frank — Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank (12 June 1929–early March 1945) was a Jewish girl who, along with her family and four other people, hid in rooms at the back of her father s Amsterdam company during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Helped by… …   Wikipedia

  • Netball around the world — Schoolyard netball game at Reygersdal Primary School, South Africa. Netball is a popular participant sport in some parts of the world, particularly in countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.[1] …   Wikipedia

  • Netball — Malawi (red) playing Fiji (blue) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Highest governing body International Federation of Netball Associations Registered players 561,000+ …   Wikipedia

  • Hjalmar Söderberg — Hjalmar Emil Fredrik Söderberg (July 2, 1869 October 14, 1941) was a Swedish novelist, playwright, poet and journalist. His work often encircle melancholy and lovelorn characters, and inject a rich portrayal of contemporary Stockholm through the… …   Wikipedia

  • Chronology — 970 980 Roswitha of Gandersheim writes six comedies in Latin at the Brunshausen Cloister, near Braunschweig. 1185 1240 Neidhart von Reuental s poems presumably become the basis for several Neidhartspiele, comic interludes in Middle High German… …   Historical dictionary of German Theatre

  • GERMAN LITERATURE — Biblical and Hebraic Influences Before the Aufklaerung (Age of Enlightenment), Jewish influences in German literature were essentially biblical and Hebraic. The medieval miracle or mystery plays, in Germany as in England and France, dramatized… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”