To me Green review is appropriately validating without the sort of intellectual hyperbole that often oversells bold interpretations. He’s far more than merely respectful of the daring; he sees it as transformative, yet with drawbacks. Fair yet decidedly affirmative. I agrees with all points.
“That we see these options so starkly is because everything else is pared away. Herzog’s dialogue, pruning the social floweriness and conversational whorls of Ibsen’s naturalism, gets right to the point of every line, leaving the text raw and red, as if exfoliated. What the first English translation of the play, by William Archer in 1889, rendered as “You see, it is very difficult to keep an account of a business matter of that kind” becomes, for Herzog, “It’s impossible to keep track” — five words instead of 17. The play, usually nosing past three hours, comes in shy of two.” |
