Suzannah At Here For Now Theatre
Suzannah, a meditation on the life of Henrik Ibsen’s wife, by Norwegian Nobel laureate Jon Fosse in a translation by Dr. May Brit Akerholt, is receiving a reverential production under the precise direction of Peter Hinton-Davis at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre.
Fosse presents us with three iterations of Suzannah (née Thoresen), as young, middle aged, and old. He described his play as a monologue for three actresses.
As each of Suzannah’s three incarnations reveal themselves they are all awaiting the arrival of Ibsen at a lovingly set dinner table but at different points in time. The old Suzannah (a magnificent Rosemary Dunsmore) is waiting for him to return from a walk with their adult son Sigurd to celebrate her birthday.
This seems to be a memory since she is acutely aware that Henrik lies dead in another room.
The young Suzannah (Brianna Rodrigues) is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the older man with whom she is infatuated so their love can blossom. Although she has set her sights on marrying the as yet far from famous playwright, she bemoans what she see as her ugliness.
The middle aged Suzannah (Maev Beaty) wonders where Ibsen could be since this is Sigurd’s seventh birthday, to be celebrated in not so genteel poverty. She, of the three, is the most consumed with anger, and with good reason.
Over the years I have seen a fair number of major Ibsen plays, or perhaps more accurately I have seem a lot of modern writers’ “new adaptations” of Ibsen’s Greatest Hits, but I knew next to nothing of Ibsen, let alone his wife.
In a programme note, Here For Now Artistic Director Fiona Mongillo says of Suzannah, “The play asks a simple but profound question: what is she left with after a life in service of someone else’s greatness?”
A lot of bitterness apparently. While Fosse suggests (and the historical record seems to bear him out) that Suzannah was a driving force behind Ibsen’s prodigious output, most of what we see in Suzannah, the play, is recriminations. She had plenty to complain about.
To start with, Ibsen was unfaithful. He sired an illegitimate child, apparently with a servant girl. There seems to have been a series of other affairs that didn’t produce issue but which generated a fair share of righteous indignation from Suzannah. On top of that he apparently couldn’t walk down the street without ogling young girls.
He also was given to drink and, so Fosse tells us, was occasionally found passed out on muddy streets.
So I learned a bit about the great man, often heralded as the father of modern theatre, although I wonder how accurate his portrayal is. For example, Fosse’s Ibsen is depicted as slight and unprepossessing. Surviving photographs show a rather good looking chap in an Anthony Trollope-y kind of way.
I learned somewhat less about Suzannah apart from her well-founded resentments. Perhaps the piece resonates more strongly in Norway, where thanks to a memoir by her daughter-in-law, she is better known.
Fosse’s 70-minute piece is stark and spare, with a rigour that would do honour to the most austere Norwegian church service.
Hinton-Davis proves an excellent choice as director and he orchestrates the proceedings with impeccable attention to detail. I especially admired the way he worked with lighting designer Louise Guinand to pick out his actresses in perfect halos of light as they navigated their way around Christina Poddubiuk’s darkened but precisely observed dining room set. Poddubiuk also provided the handsome costumes.
I found no credit for sound design, but the incidental music that appeared when appropriate seemed almost cinematic in its effect.
The cast is wonderful. Preeminent among them is Dunsmore, whose performance reminded me how much I miss her on the Stratford Festival stage. Beaty, of course, seems to excel in whatever she does and the young Rodrigues acquits herself admirably.
I might note parenthetically that while the character of the young Suzannah bemoans the fact that she is ugly, the photograph I found online begs to differ. Suzannah Thoresen may not have been a Nordic goddess, but she was far from being a troll.
This is apparently the first time any work by the world-famous Fosse has been produced in Canada. So kudos to Here For Now for the introduction.
Suzannah is a play that will appeal most to the Ibsen buffs who will chuckle at the reference to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. More casual theatregoers may admire the skill with which it is being mounted, but it doesn’t seem destined to become a fan favourite.
Suzannah continues at Here For Now Theatre through August 30, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Here For Now Theatre website.
[image: Here For Now Theatre]
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