2 Parts. 2 Visions. 1 Epic Fairytale.
A Collarts Performing Arts Graduating Production – Company T3 2025
Directed by Briony Dunn and Kitan Petkovski.
Presented in association with Collarts and The Malthouse Theatre.
How far can a lie take you before you lose yourself within it?
A liar, a lover, a dreamer on the run – Peer Gynt journeys through worlds both imagined and remembered, chasing glory, dodging consequence, and bargaining with his own soul.
Performed in two parts by two graduating ensembles, this bold reimagining of Ibsen’s epic invites you into a landscape of wild imagination and aching humanity – a place where fantasy and truth blur, and redemption flickers just out of reach.
Two worlds. Two visions. One liar’s impossible search for themselves.
Bringing Peer Gynt Part 1 to life has been an invigorating creative journey. In our adaptation, the story unfolds amid the stark grandeur of the Australian outback — a remote, isolated community framed by endless horizons of red earth and open sky. This landscape becomes a mirror of Peer’s imagination: vast, unforgiving, and charged with mythic potential. Within it, trolls, witches, and the enigmatic Boyg arise organically from the extremities of heat, solitude, and the primal struggle for survival.
Our interpretation of Part 1 is driven by the untamed energy of Peer’s youth — his feverish dreaming, his impulsive pursuit of identity and meaning. Through an intensely physical and ensemble-driven approach, we explore how Peer’s internal landscapes bleed into the world around him, blurring the thresholds between the real and the surreal.
Collaboration has been the foundation of this process. Working closely with our assistant directors, designers, and performers, we have sought to reimagine Ibsen’s classic as an Australian myth — one that captures both the boundless imagination and the rugged spirit of this land.
