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| Poster images for Ghosts |
One preoccupation which has united all four performances of
Ibsen plays I’ve been lucky enough to see over the last year or so has been an
obsession with space. There was the revolving set for The Doll’s House at the Young Vic, which meant that Nora was always
on view and her home life seemed set up and unreal; there was the gradual
compression of the stage in the production of The Enemy of the People I saw in Dublin, which helped create an
atmosphere of domestic and political oppression. And in Hedda Gabler internal glass partitions and doors allowed us to
penetrate deeper into the home and continue to watch behind closed doors.
This production of Ibsen’s 1881 Ghosts at the Almeida took this last idea and developed it even
further. Tim Hatley’s design allowed us to see into the room beyond that of the
main action, and so watch the ghostly echoes of the past play out, and also at
times the world outside the Alvings’ house. Peter Mumford’s clever lighting meant at times these divisions were
transparent, at others reflective, creating atmospheric shadows and adding to
the increasing doom. By the time Mrs Alving, Regina and Oswald sit over their
champagne, the stage is in darkness, lit only by a single lamp. And Oswald’s
final plea ‘Give me the sun’ is fulfilled in a blaze of red light which replicates
perfectly a beautiful, if terrible, dawn.
Richard Eyre’s production doesn’t just look wonderful. The
cast is strong and well-chosen. Lesley Manville’s Mrs Alving is entirely
believable – strong but suffering, damaged by her past but still capable of
moments of passionate hope and longing. The scenes between her and her son
(Jack Lowden) were among the most affective, playing well with physical distance
and blocking, and showcasing Manville’s acting at its most reactive. Charlene
McKenna brings something fresh to the Regina role, which I think can come off in
some productions as a little superficial when compared with the other
characters. As she is here, Regina is simply youthful, but while given to these
childish flights of fancy, is ultimately practical and highly capable – ‘worthy’
of the trust Oswald wished to place in her and similar in her pragmatism to her
‘father’ (played here by Brian McCardie).
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| Photograph from Ghosts - Hugo Glendenning |
Only Will Keen’s Pastor Manders comes off as a little
cardboard-cut-out but this is the fault of the adaption, not the actor. Eyre’s
script seeks clarity and followability but one problem it risks is that the
Pastor appears to be wrong headedly conservative, and is subject to the full
force of twenty-first-century liberal censure from the audience accordingly. As
Manders seems to be the butt of a joke relying on hindsight, the moral
complexity of his position (as much
as Mrs Alving’s) becomes ignored.
There were other instances where the script seemed
overstated or choices questionable – e.g. the certainty of the consensual
nature of the Captain’s relationship with the maid, and the use of explicit
statement where inference seemed apt. But these questions were just
observations about the production I would have loved to have discussed with the
director/adaptor, rather than hindrances to the enjoyability of the play.
All considered, this is a great production, which is cleverly
conceived, cohesive in its design and brilliantly executed - well worth watching.
Have you seen Ghosts at the Almeida? What did you make of
it? Let me know here, on Facebook or by tweeting @SVictorianist!
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