UK REVIEWS
MAGNIFICENT
Unforgettable, unsettling and very good
A tour de force
Henriksson is riveting
Gripping & enjoyable
The whole performance is outstanding
Brings a breath of fresh air to the London stage
This production should not be missed
SWEDISH REVIEWS
MASTERPIECE!
Now I know what Krister Henriksson has been doing to maintain his artistic integrity during the years when he was shooting the Wallander films. He has been sitting in his room in Ystad and working on the Doktor Glas text. I have rarely seen such a thorough and so consistently implemented monologue as Krister Henriksson’s Doktor Glas. It is simply outstanding. And Krister Henriksson shows with full force why he is one of the country’s greatest character actors. Dr. Glas is the story of a doctor who is apprehended by the pastor’s wife Helga. She is disgusted by her husband, Pastor Gregory, who she has to lie with every night, although she knows that it is his marital right and even her duty. God requires them to have sex and try to have children. Doktor Glas falls in love with Helga Gregorius, dreaming of her during the feverish nights and is looking for an opportunity to help her and free her from the priest Gregory. Finally, he sees only one way out and that is to kill the priest, as he does. I am struck by the similarities between Dr. Glas and Emile Zola’s novel Thérèse Raquin . The common question is whether it is in any situation right to kill another human being. Love in both cases steers Thérèse Raquin and controls Dr Glas. The naturalistic grip is also common. Possibly Hjalmar Soderberg read Zola (Thérèse Raquin came out in 1867 and Dr. Glas 1905) and chose to reconsider his conclusion. There is nothing that I can find to criticise in Krister Henriksson’s performance as Dr Glas. He stands alone on stage continuously for 80 minutes, Enthralling and captivating his audience. His body at times is stiff and jerky, he portrays Dr. Glas as a deeply unhappy man, a tragic figure whose physical expression is characterized by doubt and lack of confidence. He takes a step forward and two steps back all the time. Sarcasm and irony are dripping from Dr. Glas’s mouth but they are really no laughing matter – It is a tortured soul’s way of dealing with the experience of an increasingly painful and unjust world. Krister Henriksson is Dr. Glas for 80 minutes. In addition to Henriksson’s outstanding interpretation, the set design and especially the lighting is formidable. The light is designed by Linus Fellbom (who, incidentally, directed and created the lighting for Richard III with Richard Wolff,) and the way the light and colour is used and adheres to the text and Dr. Glas’s mood is absolutely top class. A wonderful visual experience, which is contrasted and highlighted by Krister Henriksson.
Krister Henriksson received a well-deserved standing ovation by the sold out audience.
Doktor Tyko Gabriel Glas, 33, is a man for all ages. Teenagers see him as an idealist, a courtly man who fights for the pure love of the disgusting, the distastefully ugly. For anyone who reads the novel again, after a few decades, the interest begins to turn not on what he does but who he is: a Nietzschean superman with obvious sexual terror.
Dr. Glas is a man who would measure up to the creation. He performs the most taboo act he can think of – to kill, for paradoxically to at last feel free to experience life. Krister Henriksson is playing Dr Glas in the Vason Theatre for a short period and then touring around the country. The set shows the doctor’s office, a large, grey room with a desk, a sink and a visitor’s chair, a barren environment that increasingly comes to resemble a prison cell. During some sequences the walls are coloured monochromatic red and blue – it is beautiful and effective as a Robert Wilson set. The story is moved to the 1950s. Doctor Glas is wearing a brown, wrinkled suit and moves stiffly through the room. Allan Edwall adapted the novel and he emphasizes a black humour – an escalation of irony. Anyone who reads the novel will not laugh – but you do at The Vasan Theatre. Here the drama of Dr. Glas has an absurd tale of alienation and a touch of fear. Dr. Glas falls in love with Helga Gregorius who is married to a repulsive priest. Glas wants to help Helga to a happy life as a widow, but when she gets rejected by her lover, Glas has the opportunity, but he still does not approach the one he worships. Edwall and Henriksson interpretations would not have come from reading the famous passage “You want to be loved, the lack thereof admired, failing that feared, failing that hated and despised. ” Instead, it is precisely the inability to arouse emotions that are focused on and the need to shake up an existence without life with an act so grandiose and immoral that it can shake the foundation of this nonsense, creating an existential intoxication. Dr. Glas challenging God through the servant Gregorius. Krister Henriksson is magnificent as Dr. Glas. He makes him a man who has relegated himself to isolation, to the tragic loneliness. He accounts his thoughts as an accountant but he cannot feel. Henriksson manages to portray all these weaknesses. His anxiety is elevated through his diary entries and he skillfully transforms himself between the different characters voices. Glas himself has a fear of doubt that still dares tackle the most forbidden. Henriksson fills the stage with restrained energy and panic, the whole production is superbly done.
Quotes
“Success on the Vasan Stage – Krister Henriksson is perfect in Doktor Glas” –
“Krister Henriksson is magnificent” –
“Magical Doktor Glas” –
“A soul’s darkness. Brilliantly portrayed” –
“Absolutely spellbinding” –
“Shimmering beauty with dull pain” –
“An artistic masterpiece” –
Finnish Reviews
“Dr. Glas is a sparkling gem.”
“Henriksson does a delicious job, it’s so rare to see such brilliant acting. Henriksson’s face, voice, and body language is minimal and accurate and often entices the audience to almost stunned laughter with his lightning-fast definition. It is intelligent acting. ”
“Henriksson has a phenomenal sense of rhythm.”
“This dramatization of Hjalmar Söderberg’s novel, which is more than well-known among the Swedes, is a feat in the art of acting. Henriksson has read the text with x-ray eyes, and serves on stage every tone and every gesture the author gave the main character in his novel. Together, all these minimalist shades gradually put together a picture of Dr. Glas.”
“Doktor Glas was a seamless and stunning theatrical experience.”
“A strong text requires a strong interpretation. On stage is Krister Henriksson, is a charismatic actor, who alone fills a large stage. He exudes a power that reaches right up to the last row, even in a large salon… ”