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Lady from the Sea, The

Ellida, the lighthouse-keeper's daughter, is trapped in her marriage and longs for the sea.

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama, Adaptations (Literature)

  • Time Period: 1950s
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings

  • Performance Group:
  • College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre
Ellida, the lighthouse-keeper's daughter, is trapped in her marriage and longs for the sea. When a former lover returns from years of absence, she is forced to decide between freedom and the new life she has made for herself.

Relocated to the Caribbean in the 1950s, Elinor Cook's version of Henrik Ibsen's shattering 1888 play about duty and self-determination premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2017, in a production directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah.

REVIEWS:

"Elinor Cook's beautiful new version is transporting... unforgettable."

 The Observer

"One of the strangest and most haunting of Ibsen's works… Elinor Cook's sharp adaptation and relocation to a post-colonial British island manages to update the proceedings while also emphasising the social expectations that make this less of a paradise than it looks for the female characters in the play… draws on its Caribbean setting for some fine moments of humour."

 Independent

"In Elinor Cook's strong new adaptation... could have been written yesterday… a beautiful, delicate and universal portrayal of human relationships at their most complex."

 WhatsOnStage

"Profoundly beautiful… what you take away are both lightness and depth, and there could be no greater honour to the balancing act of Ibsen’s great human comedy than that."

 The Arts Desk

"Elinor Cook's new version clarifies a familiar text… the dialogue [is] updated with a good deal of ingenuity."

 The Guardian

Premiere Production: Donmar Warehouse, London, 2017.
  • Casting: 5M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Good role(s) for female performers

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Lady from the Sea, The Script This is optional. Order Now

Ellida, the lighthouse-keeper's daughter, is trapped in her marriage and longs for the sea. When a former lover returns from years of absence, she is forced to decide between freedom and the new life she has made for herself.

Relocated to the Caribbean in the 1950s, Elinor Cook's version of Henrik Ibsen's shattering 1888 play about duty and self-determination premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2017, in a production directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah.

$24.95