Endangered Productions brings Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt to life as it was meant to be performed: by a troupe of singers, actors, dancers and a 30-piece orchestra.

Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt – the story of the downfall and subsequent redemption of a Norwegian peasant anti-hero and braggart – in 1867 as an allegorical poem. But six years later he changed his mind and asked his friend and compatriot Edvard Grieg to compose incidental music for a production of the play. The music remains an all-time classical favourite to this day.

Directed by Christine Logan, with musical direction by Peter Alexander and all-new translation by May-Brit Akerholt, Peer Gynt features Philippe Klaus in the title role, with soprano Emily Turner as Solveig, Peer’s long-suffering love and Elaine Hudson is Peer’s widowed mother Aase.

Katherine Munro plays the Woman in Green, Ingrid and Anitra, Jack Elliot Mitchell takes on several roles including the mysterious Stranger, while David Kerslake and Alan Faulkner bring gravitas to the roles of Button Moulder and the Troll King respectively. Jessica Manclark, Karen Lambert, Ed Suttle, Glennen Fahey, Fawad Mahdavi, Wei Jiang and Antony Gleeson round out the cast with Coro Austral forming the chorus – all accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra led by SSO veteran Fiona Ziegler.