Henrik Ibsen - the Lady from the Sea

This speech was given on the occassion of the performance of the Lady of the Sea by (as far as I remember), the Dramatis Personaa theater group, in Makati, Philippines 2004.

Ladies and Gentlemen. It's an honor to welcome you to the Carlos P. Romulo theater. Carlos P. Romulo, by the way, is the former Grand Old Man of Philippine Diplomacy and one of United Nations founding fathers. You have ALL seen him in the famous photo - coming in from the sea literally speaking - with President Quezon and General McCarthur onto a beach in Leyte in October 1944. Tonight’s play – The Lady from the Sea - was written by Henrik Ibsen who, internationally, is probably the most widely recognized Norwegian artist - in competition with his contemporaries Edward Grieg, the composer, and Edward Munch, the expressionist painter. Ibsen wrote his plays during the second half of the 1800s.


The Lady from the Sea was written in 1888 which happens to be one year after Jose Rizal published Noli Me Tangere - the book which triggered the Philippine Revolution and costed Rizal his life. Both Ibsen and Rizal came from small nationstates-in-the-making. Modern Norway was created in a two-step process which started with a Norwegian constitution in 1814 and ended with independence from a union with Sweden in 1905. The Philippine Republic was declared in 1898, but it took another half century - and three wars - before the Philippine Republic was fully realized in 1945. I mention this because both Ibsen and Rizal were influenced by the many changes, revolutions and new ideas which came about in the 1800s. Both found refuge and inspiration in the European cultural centers, Rome, Madrid, Heidelberg, Paris. If we look at history's big timeline, the Lady from the Sea was written two-thirds along a 150-year long march from the old-order society to the modern society more or less as we know it today. This march starts with the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and ends with the end of the First World War in 1918. Rizal analyzed the contemporary Philippines of colonizers and colonized, and found in his own words - a society afflicted by the most malignant of cancers. Ibsen's focus was more of a close-up. He analyzed relations between individuals, and the diseases HE found where often in the family. A recurring theme is the relationship between man and woman. Ibsen questioned the contemporary view of women as fully subordinated to men's will and ambitions. These were NEW if not outright revolutionary thoughts in the late 1800s. In the play you will see a typical Ibsen gallery of persons. It takes place during summer-time in a resort-town along a Norwegian fjord. Dr Wangell, the district doctor lives with his two grown-up daughters. He is a widower, but has married again with the much younger Ellida – the Lady from the Sea. And here we are at the center of the drama - the troubled relationship between the aging Doctor and the young Ellida. She is obsessed with the ocean – or is it just freedom she longs for? What exactly is the problem? Well, let's see. As is often the case in Ibsen's plays - ghosts from the past are haunting the present. You will also meet a school teacher and former house teacher to the Wangel daughters; and then a student of sort – a young man who prefers illusion to reality - another Ibsen theme. At a deeper level this is about freedom in relationships. Ibsen asserts that love can not set root unless one chooses freely... But as in all art, different people see different things. Reflect and enjoy!

Thank you very much!