Peer Gynt Prize Peer Gynt Prize The Peer Gynt Prize or the Peer Gynt Award ("Årets Peer Gynt" or "Per Gynt-prisen") is a private Norwegian prize presented annually by the private commercial company "Peer Gynt AS" during the Peer Gynt Festival, also organised by the same company. The Peer Gynt Prize is named after the main character in "Peer Gynt" (1867), a five-act play in verse by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. The prize is awarded to people or institutions who has marked themselves in a positive way nationally and internationally. However, the prize has received criticism for misrepresenting the Peer Gynt character, who
Peer Gynt Ginty", transferred the play to an Irish Civil War setting. It was staged at Dublin's Gate Theatre. In 1969, Broadway impresario Jacques Levy (who had previously directed the first version of "Oh! Calcutta!") commissioned The Byrds' Roger McGuinn to write the music for a pop (or country-rock) version of "Peer Gynt", to be titled "Gene Tryp". The play was apparently never completed, although, as of 2006, McGuinn was preparing a version for release. Several songs from the abortive show appeared on the Byrds' albums of 1970 and 1971. In March 1972 Jerry Heymann's adaptation, called "Mr. Gynt, Inc.", was performed