Emperor and Galilean @ Olivier Theatre, London
Reviewed by John Newman
Reviewed by John Newman
Set between 351 and 363 AD Emperor and Galilean concerns the Roman ruler Julian the Apostate and his attempts to revert the empire to pagan religion. Originally written as a two part ten hour epic by Henrik Ibsen which premiered in 1896 it has rarely been performed since and never staged in the UK. That is until this summer when Ben Power’s lean three hour twenty minute long adaptation was staged at the NT Olivier Theatre. Ibsen subtitled the work “ a World- Historical Play” and it is described by American academic Toril Moi as raising “the question of whether human beings have the power to shape history or whether history has a will of its own” . Ibsen described it as his most important work yet it is probably his least known.
