Peer Gynt, Royal Lyceum Theatre

Published on Friday 19 June 2009 10:04

Peer Gynt **** Royal Lyceum Theatre PACKING the expletive-laden punch of a drunken, small-town Saturday night fist-fight, Dominic Hill's award-winning production of Ibsen's classic play shocks its way on to the Lyceum stage.

Once there, however, this loud, vulgar, incisive and utterly compelling piece of theatre lands its blows with pinpoint precision, making perfect sense of Colin Teevan's update of the original text.

At least it does for those who can see past his recurrent use of the C and F words.

For this revival of the Dundee Rep/National Theatre of Scotland co-production of Ibsen's dreaming, poetic, mystical Peer Gynt is transformed into a lying braggart, despised by the local lads unless he has a drink in him – when they amuse themselves by making him tell another of his tales.

Keith Fleming is brilliant to watch in the role. He has a wonderful physicality, which provides plenty of reasons for the girls to fall for him. The more impossible their love is, the more he wants them.

Once seduced, however, this womaniser is off to the next one, leaving his love's heart shattered.

The production bustles along, from the Peer's mum's kitchen where he tells her his tall story of capturing a reindeer, to the village hall where seduces a bride out from under her fianc's nose, to the high mountains where he consorts with randy shepherdesses and troll princesses, all the while longing for his one and only Solveig.

It is bursting with great individual performances. Ann Louise Ross, the mother, is convinced by her son's biggest lies and would fight anyone who doubts him. Carmen Pieraccini stomps around as the troll princess while Robert Paterson is her vicious, stinking, foul-mouthed father. Ashley Smith provides the only beacon of purity as the innocent Solveig who waits for Peer to come home.

It is the 18-strong ensemble which really grabs you, though. On the stripped back stage, their constant ducking and diving between roles ensures that it all bangs along with great pace and vitality.

Having taken the production right out on a limb in the first half, this gets even better in the second as Gerry Mulgrew takes on the role of Old Peer. Having run off into the world and made his fame and fortune, the layers on Peer's life are ripped off to find the truth of the man he is underneath.

It doesn't all work quite as well as the original production, however, largely because the staging feels cramped behind the Lyceum's proscenium arch. This somehow skews the rest of the production, overemphasising the fruity language and allowing the pace to meander towards the end.

It is still a brilliant production, however, one which finds the redemption in Peer Gynt and questions darkly whether he has been true to himself.

Run ends tomorrow.