This is a thoroughly enthralling piece of work with an exquisite lyrical and expressive beauty. Susan Sontag’s unique rewrite of Iben’s classic fable was first presented in 1998 at Teatro Comunale di Ferrara in Italy with the staging of Robert Wilson and costumes by Giorgio Armani. It is a modern version of the story about Ellida who has married the widower doctor Wangel, thus becoming the stepmother of his two nearly adult daughters. A pleasing longing towards the sea and The Stranger who she is both drawn to and frightened by, consumes Ellida. In her memory, she seeks back to a short love meeting she had with a sailor before she married Wangel. The thought of the lost love and the longing for personal freedom forces Ellida to make a drastic choice with great consequences both for her, as for the people around her.
