Synopsis Ellida, the Lighthouse Keeper's daughter, is homesick for the sea. Her life with her husband Dr Wangel and his daughters leaves her restless. Then, on a hot, brilliantly clear summer morning life changes...Ellida Wangel's mysterious seafaring lover has returned after many years to reclaim the woman to whom he believed himself to be betrothed. With piercing eyes he exerts a mesmerising hold over all whom he encounters. Yet, he is a man with a past, a murderer, a man of the sea. What is Ellida to do? Whom should she choose? The husband who loves her and is prepared to grant her freedom or the enigmatic man with whom she shares the same watery affinity. A man who holds a 'horrible unfathomable power' over her mind. Yet Ellida's mind is like the sea, it ebbs and flows and finally reaches its own firm conclusion. The Lady from the Sea (1888) represents an important turning point in Ibsen's work. Within a few days of its publication Edmund Gosse wrote 'There is thrown over the whole play a glamour of romance, of mystery, of landscape beauty...moreover, after so many tragedies, this is a comedy...the tone is quite unusually sunny, and without a tinge of pessimism.' This play explores the hypnotic hold one person may gain over another. It is an emphatic defence of individuality, of inner struggles faced with courage and integrity.
Virtually the first thing we hear in Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea is the painter Ballestad describing his painting of a dying mermaid: "She's been washed up on the sea and can't find her way back. So here she is, dying in the rock pools... The lady of the house gave me the idea." It's played for laughs and establishes a warm comic tone which filters through this production. But it also captures the central dilemma for Joely Richardson's character Ellida Wangel - if you feel like you don't belong somewhere, should you stay?
Following in the footsteps of her mother Vanessa Redgrave and late sister Natasha Richardson, she plays the young second wife of loving Dr Wangel (Malcolm Storry) who is desperately trying to understand her recent strange moods. It doesn't help that Ellida has never felt able to play mother to grown up Bolette (an engaging Madeleine Worrall) or slyly sardonic, petulant Hilde (Alexandra Moen).
So when the Stranger - a sailor from her past - invites her to leave them "of her own free will", she almost revels in the torment of choosing between the "terrifying attraction" of the sea or homely dry land.
Richardson is a gorgeous, appealing and at times infuriating Ellida, as changeable as the sea (predictably); by turns glowing, arms outflung and vibrant, or nervy, hands fussing with her hair. And the costume department has pulled out all the stops, dressing her in beautiful, figure-hugging pale cerulean for the second half.
The open stage - simple wooden decking which curls up at the edges like breaking surf - is dominated by a mesmerising backdrop of the sky from set designer Simon Higlett which wraps the action in azure, shifting to dusky pink for the Aurora Borealis.
It's not exactly breaking news that Ibsen has a keen eye for strong, complex female characters but they are his forte in this play and the cast does them justice. The comic revelation is Sam Crane as superb, socially awkward Hans Lyngstrand. There were also a few nervy laughs from the audience on opening night, unsure what to make of the otherwise excellent Arnholm's (Richard Dillane) intimate scene with former pupil Bolette.
In any case, there's a pleasing and enthralling ebb and flow of action in this debut of Rose artistic director Stephen Unwin's translation of Ibsen's 1888 play, which is clear, light and poetic; much like his production.
Stephen Unwin has a reputation as a journeyman director and this is a suitably workmanlike production of The Lady From the Sea, that rarity amongst Ibsen's plays - a story with a happy ending. The problem is that the two leads fail to sparkle. Malcolm Storry overdoes the stolidity of Wangel in the face of his wife's possible desertion and Joely Richardson, in a role that is a family tradition, doesn't completely capture the enigmatic passion and emotional confusion of Ellida. Fortunately the lighter sub-plots are much better handled and there are particularly good supporting performances from Madeleine Worrall and Alexandra Moen as the two Wangel sisters. There's always plenty to appreciate with the subtleties of characterisation and the ebb and flow of emotions of Ibsen but this production fails to do more than scratch the surface of its potential. - David Baxter
18 Mar 12
Malcolm Storry's Doctor Wangel is simply too stolid to stoke up the heat in the central love triangle here. When nutty Ellida Wangel (a suitably bonkers and entirely credible Joely Richardson) seeks to liberate herself from him time and time again, he just seems to take it on the chin, offering little to any resistance. I think this is misjudged, leaving Richardson with noone to ignite the spark of her desperate bid for female liberation. Seeing Richard Dillane in a fine gentlemanly supporting role here, I couldn't help but recall his big brother, Stephen Dillane being part of an absolutely incendiary central duo in Ibsen's The Master Builder at the Almeida. Now that duo had such spark that that bonkers Ibsen relationship became transcendent. It made me wish that Richard Dillane had played Doctor Wangel here, as I think he would have played off Richardson in a more realistic, less docile way, possessing as he does much of his brother's smouldering charisma. Anyhow, this production is beautiful to look at with it's wood-that-looks-like-waves design, and there was a delicious bite to the performance of Alexandra Moen, especially in her mocking of Sam Crane's pompous monstrous affected artist. So a mixed bag, that doesn't make the most of Richardson's success at channeling a woman's desperate yearning to be free like the sea. - steveatplays
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