Review: Brand by Lighthouse Theatre
by Charles Ney

What a pleasure to see a rarely performed Ibsen play fully mounted.  In all my theatre travels, I have never encountered Brand, the playwright's first work.  So what a treat it was to have the chance to see this piece on stage!  

 

As I watched this production unfold, I realized why this piece is so rarely done. The challenges are many. At the core is an icy uncaring protagonist who lives by the motto “All or nothing.” He’s a man whose will is relentless in pursuit of his doctrine and he never wavers throughout Ibsen’s five acts. His several monologues are lengthy harangues about the weaknesses of others, long stoic tirades against the ways of the world, and all the people he's encountered—including his mother.  Ibsen tells the story in multiple outdoor scenes set in the Norwegian fjords. There are major weather events: floods, winter storms, avalanches. Along the way Brand loses everything: his son, his wife, his mother, his church, his congregation and, finally, his faith.

 

As an avalanche buries him alive at the end, he cries out, “Does not salvation consider the will of man?” The play ends as a voice answers: “He is the god of love.”

 

 

Brand means “fire” in Norwegian, but it also can mean “sword,” especially as a given name. Both are useful descriptors of Ibsen’s lead character. As Brand, Zach Gamble portrayed a powerful and charismatic leader—no easy feat, given the challenges of Ibsen’s text. In the hands of a less experienced actor, Brand’s speeches  might have come off as one-note—a trap for any actor playing this character.  Ibsen was a young playwright still figuring out his dramaturgy and hadn’t by then discovered how effective dialogue can be. Unless the actor playing Brand can find characteristics other than immovable will, it will be a long and predictable evening.

 

Kudos to Gamble for uncovering moments of temptation, doubt, softness, even warmth and compassion. Trust me, he had to dig deep, but his work paid off beautifully.  I shall remember his “breakdown” scene for a long time and the sight of Gamble kneeling completely demoralized as tears streamed down his cheeks.

 

 

The Lighthouse production had several other actors whose performances are also worthy of mention. In  another of Ibsen’s more challenging roles, Blanca Gomez as Agnes hit just the right notes as the carefree lover who has a religious awakening, falls deeply in love with Brand, and then becomes torn between his preaching and her love for her son. She gives up all earthly attachments for Brand and then dies.

 

Ibsen wrote a particularly harsh scene in which Brand obliges her to donate her dead son’s clothes to a freezing beggar, an act that leads to her death. A while later, she comes back as an initially reassuring spirit who suddenly and shockingly transforms into a demonic force. That was a powerful moment.

 

Craig Sowell’s work as mayor/guide also stood out. His meticulous performance captured his characters’ essences, inhabited fully and three dimensionally, and  precisely executed.  Cole Sutton’s Ejnar was also impressive in rendering of a character who shifts 180 degrees from happy-go-lucky artist to stern, bitter man, full of judgment, criticism and denial.

 

 

Lighthouse Theatre did an admirable job of producing this piece. The story was well told dramatically.  Director Chase Woolridge's staging allowed the story to unfold with pathos, creatively using and manipulating the space. I quibble with some of the character placements, but the floorplan did a nice job of providing levels and depth within a stage that can be horizontal and flat. At times the blackouts were a little too long to maintain the play's developing tension.

 

Music choices really helped evoke the various locations and times. A special shout out to Jonathan Sikora’s lighting design and the production's special effects, which helped portray the play’s many and constantly shifting locales.

 

 

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Brand
by Henrik Ibsen
Lighthouse Theatre

October 24 - 27 and 31, 2024; November 2 - 3, 2024

Crestview Baptist Church activites center, Georgetown

We have a special performance in Austin at the AISD PAC at Mueller November 1st.