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Egil Tornqvist. Ibsen, Strindberg and the Intimate Theatre: Studies in TV Presentation. Film Culture in Transition Series. 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 these plays are especially suited to television adaptation, since both playwrights wrote primarily realistic-if not naturalistic-drama for a framed stage similar to the box of the television set. Each audience is in voyeur position behind the absent fourth wall, and the dramas fulfill audience members' expectations of viewing a family situation not too unlike their own. Although not consistently realistic, many of Strindberg's plays lend themselves to television by being relatively short, while Ibsen's full-length works can present editing problems. Moreover, each playwright's detailed stage directions and character descriptions, which were aimed at reading as well as stage audiences, offer rich opportunities for comparison with the detailed shot descriptions required in television staging. Tornqvist points out that in the preface to Miss Julie Strindberg...