ABSTRACT

It is fascinating that the history of theater also includes projects that kindled the imagination of artists and made it to the creative planning and design phase-while never actually being performed. Eleonora Duse’s vision of producing John Gabriel Borkman and The Lady from the Sea after staging

Rosmersholm in collaboration with Edward Gordon Craig is one of those projects that could have revolutionized the staging not only of Ibsen but also of plays in general. Beyond simply regretting that nothing came of it, we may seek to understand what it was that prevented its realization and reappraise the exceptional relationship shared by Duse and Craig. Despite the numerous differences between them in age and their respective conceptions of the theater, these two great innovators nonetheless succeeded in working together, convinced that they could build on the accord they had found in their acclaimed mise en scène of Rosmersholm.