Egil Tornqvist. Ibsen, Strindberg and the Intimate Theatre: Studies in TV Presentation. Film Culture in Transition Series.

Publication: Comparative Drama

Publication Date: 22-JUN-01

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COPYRIGHT 2001 www.wmich.edu/compdr

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999. Pp. 240. $49.50.

Although cultural critics have explored television production, they generally have ignored the special circumstances of adapting stage plays, even though this is one of the oldest methods of producing television drama. Egil Tornqvist takes a step toward legitimizing scholarly inquiry into the adaptation of stage drama for television by closely examining British and Scandinavian television productions of thirteen plays by Strindberg and Ibsen. Tornqvist painstakingly compares and contrasts these productions not only with each other but also with the playwrights' texts, noting both the typical challenges of staging the text in any medium and how each director's solutions affect the possible interpretations. As a result, Tornqvist contributes more to the scholarly conversation by his choice of subject than by his critical approach; however, he does define some valuable parameters for the continued analysis of adaptations. This book is likely to serve as a springboard for other interdisciplinary scholars.

Tornqvist presents a solid case for choosing Ibsen and Strindberg as the subjects of his study. On a practical level, each playwright's work has been frequently adapted for television in both Scandinavia and abroad, allowing Tornqvist to choose from multiple plays and multiple high-quality productions of those plays. More importantly, he argues that...

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