Gnit At The Shaw Festival
Perhaps if you are familiar with Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 verse play Peer Gynt you will like Will Eno’s Gnit (pronounced guh-NIT) at the Shaw Festival more than I did. Perhaps if you are familiar with Ibsens Peer Gynt, you will dislike Gnit more than I did.
Gnit is described as a “faithful, unfaithful and willfully American misreading of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.” The play has, for reasons that elude me, a following.
Director Tim Carroll is obviously a devotee of Eno’s work. This is the second Eno play he has brought to Shaw. His enthusiasm does not seem to be reciprocated by the Shaw’s patrons. The audience at the evening show I saw, a full month into Gnit’s run, was tiny, which suggests that the word of mouth on the show has been less than positive.
Peer Gynt was Ibsen’s reworking of a Norwegian fairy tale in which a young man embarks on a picaresque journey of self-discovery. In his reworking of Ibsen’s reworking, Eno has changed Peer Gynt into Peter Gnit. Why Gnit? “It’s a typo,” Peter explains in one of the play’s more inane jokes.
Carroll has adorned Eno’s text with all manner of directorial conceits that are frequently baffling, at least to me. What’s up with those raised palms gestures?
The whimsy extends to the well executed costumes by Hanne Loosen. They range from the very clever to the just plain odd.
There are some very fine actors in the Gnit ensemble. Mike Nadajewski is a standout as a character called Town who is meant to represent the entire population of a village. Nadajewski brings a manic Robin Williams-like quality to the task and Loosen’s costume for Town is one of her best.
The always impressive Julia Course brings a kind of quiet dignity to Solway and Patrick Galligan is funny in a number of incarnations.
Ultimately it was all lost on me. Ibsen’s version had five acts and runs some five hours when performed in its entirety. Eno’s version was a too-long one act and that was because I fled at intermission.
Your mileage may differ, but for me Gnit was Gdawful.
Gnit continues at the Shaw Festival through October 4, 2025. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Shaw Festival website.
For a complete index of reviews CLICK HERE.
Don’t miss another review or blog post! SUBSCRIBE HERE
