I have always appreciated Ibsen’s masterful use of metaphor and poetry in his work, and have come to appreciate the complexities within each text; it is, afterall, a part of the canon of European Drama, a part of the “Classic Drama” unit in high school. I firmly believe that the power of theater is in its inherent ability to hold a mirror up to the world and ask some deep questions of the audience and creatives, so I chose Rosmersholm because it seemed to echo events of our current world. However, as time has gone on, Rosmersholm has taken on new life and new meaning with each passing news headline. This play, written in 1885 by a Norwegian man, has become a timeless representation of party politics’ effects on communities and marginalized populations.
I mean, it’s 2021, what does this old dead White guy have to say about today’s world? Apparently, a cold reality because it’s as if Ibsen saw the state of the world he lived in and how the battle would continue until something radical is done to change the systems in place everywhere.
Today, we seem to be living in a world that continues to have the same conversation on repeat, and yet people seem surprised and shocked about the realities of racism, sexism, and bigotry and that the conversation must continue. Throughout history, over and over again, we see that power always leads to oppression and that those systems of power and privileged people will survive for as long as the world stays silent and doesn’t take action.
So what do we do? How do we build a new future? How do we create, as Rosmer states, a “True Democracy?” How do we achieve Ibsen’s vision of “True Freedom"?
We have to break the cycle. We have to break the patterns, shed the expectations, abolish the systems established in the past in order to build a new future, a world that values every human.
We are in a tug-o-war for the future. But in a game of tug-o-war, there is always someone who wins and someone who loses… unless you break the rope.
- Andrew Coopman
April 21, 2021