Ghosts

Synopsis

Classic drama about a woman's struggle against prejudice and fear written in 1881. On her country estate, Mrs Alving is building an orphanage in memory of her dead husband. As her son Oswald, a successful artist living in Paris, returns home and the Pastor arrives to dedicate the orphanage, it seems she can finally bury the painful memories of her past. But over the course of one day, the dark secrets and unresolved tensions of the past are brutally exposed. The strange and complex relationships that bind Mrs Alving and her son to their maid Regina, her father Engstrand and to the priest Manders come to light - and we discover the shocking truth about her dead husband.

Our Review:

15 May 2009

An evening spent in the company of Henrik Ibsen is seldom a straightforward one. Amelia Bullmore’s remarkable new production of his 1891 play, Ghosts, captures the social complexities of the period, delivering suitably delicate and understated performances which develop quite spectacularly. It simmers with tradition in the early scenes and explodes with revelation in the later. The Sword of Damocles, forged in the treachery of the family annals, falls onto the play’s characters, one by one, in a quite sensational fashion.

It is no wonder that the play came under the scrutinizing monocle of conservative Late-Victorian audiences. Its treatment of incest and venereal disease may, even now in the twenty first century, leave some audience members feeling uneasy. Whilst the play’s high drama capitalises on the more shocking content of a Greek tragedy, the sensitivity of the script and the sensibility of the cast save the production from the unbelievable real...

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