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Peter Cadden, Hasan Dixon, Brendan Fleming, Abby
Leamon, Pauline Whitaker |
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Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield, Buxton Opera House,
Theatre Royal Winchester, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Hull Truck Theatre |
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VICTOR HALLETT - THEATRE IN WALES |
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"It
might be thought that a production on a good but basic touring
set on which characters stand or sit in almost immobility while
delivering their lines would come across as wooden and stilted.
Not so.
In Michael Cabot's astonishingly powerful production, which uses
no tricks, not even music, the surface calm hides seething
emotions, feelings and thoughts.
The other thing that the stillness does is to allow total
concentration on the words. Frank McGuinness' 2007 version lets
the language live freshly, sometimes with an Irish lilt, without
ever removing it from the context of stifling small town
Norwegian morality.
And by this total concentration on the words I realised just how
shocking the play must have seemed to its first audiences. We
could properly hear and feel every piece of past behaviour that
had led to the appalling plights of the two youngest members of
the household.
Hasan Dixon's Oswald is not dying melodramatically from the
moment he appears so the revelation that his brain is being
eaten away is a true shock, even though I knew it was coming.
Equally when we first learn the truth about the maid Regine,
played with the perfect balance of respect and liveliness by
Abby Leamon, and her father Engstrand, played robustly but never
too robustly by Peter Cadden, it's revealed so quietly that it's
a moment before the impact fully hits us.
Brendan Fleming is a ramrod of moral certainties as Pastor
Manders, visibly reeling inside at each revelation but never
allowing himself to give in to the blows.
Pauline Whitaker's Mrs Alving is the true moral centre of the
play and hers is a magnificent performance. Relieved after so
many years to be able to tell her truths she finally has to face
up to the appalling results of doing so when she is alone with
her beloved Oswald, devastatingly preparing to comply with his
final request.
The other still aspect of this play was the audience. Not a
sound was to be heard throughout, except for a couple of moments
where McGuinness had found ironic humour in it. Not only that
but at the end there was utter silence until the actors came to
take their bow.
I thought I knew Ghosts but this truly excellent production made
me feel I was experiencing it for the first time."
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MARY LELAND -
IRISH TIMES |
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"As Henrik Ibsen continued to drive a harrow through the
conventions of his time in 1881, he chose, in Ghosts, the notion
of a mother’s love as his implement.
Typically, he did not sanction sanctity despite the calm
sitting-room in which Mrs Alving is finalising a memorial to her
husband while also welcoming home her son Oswald. In an ironic
acknowledgement of the dissolute life of her late spouse, the
memorial is an orphanage; the son is indeed a prodigal, for whom
Mrs Alving prepares not only to kill the fatted calf but even,
possibly, to kill the diseased young man himself.
She is the rock against which the still-turbulent eddies of her
husband’s depravity break into waves of intimate intensity, and
as directed by Michael Cabot, this London Classic Theatre
production allows Pauline Whitaker to convey the cost at which
Mrs Alving controlled her household and family. Whitaker’s
stateliness keeps the domestic turmoil in balance, dismissing
the machinations of old Engstrand, an evildoer in whom Peter
Cadden manages to invest some charm, and diverting Oswald’s
interest in the ambitious maid Regine (Abbey Leamon). In a tide
of truth-telling, ghostly connections issue from the past like
crabs from a crevice, none more surprising than the hint of an
early intimacy between Mrs Alving and her ill-chosen adviser,
Pastor Manders.
As the orphanage goes up in predictable flames and Hasan Dixon’s
convincing Oswald breaks down in dementia, Ibsen’s allegory as
revived by Frank McGuinness loses none of its power to startle
or even, still at this distance, to shock. "
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JOYCE MCMILLAN -
THE SCOTSMAN |
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"It's a gloomy play for a midsummer night. For all its
gathering misery, though, there's a strange, vibrant power about
Ibsen's radical 1881 study of a mother and son destroyed by the
sexual hypocrisy and lies rife in 'respectable' 19th century
society; something about it that grips the attention of
audiences, almost against their will.
The play tells the story of middle-aged Mrs Alving, a wealthy
widow living in a provincial and rain-soaked Norwegian town, who
is about to open an orphanage in memory of her late husband,
some ten years after his death. Her artist son Oswald, in his
early twenties, returns home for the ceremony; but the night
before the opening, the sexual lies and secrets that made a
misery of Mrs Alving's marriage, and are now about to destroy
the health of her fragile son, begin to surface, unleashing
havoc.
This touring production by London Classic Theatre - seen in
Kirkcaldy and Aberdeen on Friday and Saturday, and heading for
Musselburgh this weekend - features Frank McGuinness' new 2010
version of the text, with a north-west Irish inflection that
brings out both the dark humour and the raw emotion of the text:
in Kirkcaldy, the audience responded to the sanctimonious
hypocrisy of the minister, Pastor Manders, with an immediacy
that is unusual when standard English translations are used.
Michael Cabot's production is often very static, with little or
no physical movement. Through sheer respect for the text,
though, Cabot's hard-working company eventually build an
impressive dramatic momentum, with Pauline Whitaker's stately,
slow-burning Mrs Alving leading the cast to that heartbreaking
moment when she and her son are left entirely alone, to suffer
the consequences of an evil which their society can only handle
by shunning the victims, and pretending that the crime never
existed."
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LIAM MURPHY -
MUNSTER EXPRESS |
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"London Classic Theatre again delivered an excellent
production at Garter Lane of Ibsen's Ghosts with the new Frank
McGuinness version.
Back in 1882, Ibsen set out to shock Norwegian and 19th
century morality with a deep exploration and commentary on
philandering, family secrets, venereal disease and the deadening
impact of duty on women in a rigid society where even the clergy
had moral turpitude pushed deep into the gospel of
righteousness.
Ibsen set out to be sensational and he enjoyed the odium
of having his work condemned as 'an open sewer, a dirty act done
publicly', 'gross, putrid indecorum', 'revolting and blasphemous
and abhorrent'.
Today as lot of the subject matter seems old hat, quaint
and hardly worth the fuss, yet this production directed by
Michael Cabot pointed up some morals for today's society that
puts on a brave face but is still as mendacious as ever.
Mrs Alving has returned to a brute of a philandering
husband on the spurious advice of Pastor Manders, a cold auto-didact
who lives in a black or white moral maze.
The cast gather for the commemorating opening of an
orphanage dedicated to Alving's husband. The notion of the sins
of the father coming out in the son, Oswald, who desires a
servant, Regine, who is unknown to him, his half-sister. Oswald
knows he is dying of venereal disease and wants his mother to
assist him to die early, rather than endure the pain and agony
of a prolonged death.
Duty is redefined and the memories and implications return
like ghosts to haunt decisions made and regretted. Conscience or
guilt could be the ghosts referred to.
The performances were first-class with Pauline Whitaker a
splendid Mrs Alving, Hasan Dixon was a fine Oswald and Brendan
Fleming was a chilling Pastor Manders. Peter Cadden was an
excellent Engstrand and Abby Leamon was Regine.
As ever London Classic brought a wonderful set on tour."
"When director Michael Cabot was in his first year at
university he struggled to be impressed with studying Ibsen’s
Ghosts. He admits not to have engaged with the play at all and
the subsequent student production left him cold. Judged by his
current production, they were early lessons well learnt.
He breathes new life into this absorbing and emotional
adaptation by Frank McGuinness and I could have certainly have
sat through more. It just gets better and better as the
scandalous tale unfolds, with a string of surprising
revelations. Amid the serious themes there are a few unexpected
lighter moments which work so well. It’s a play you think about
on the way home - appreciating the importance of some of the
early dialogue.
Peter Cadden as Engstrand comes close to stealing this
five-hander. In a comparatively cameo role his entrances are
eagerly anticipated. Hasan Dixon goes through so many emotions
in his fine portrayal of Oswald and several of his scenes are
among the most memorable in this production. Abby Leamon is very
confident and effective as Regine. The beautifully constructed
set adds another dimension and is well utilised by the players.
There are 50 venues on this long tour and it’s likely this
powerful production will produce a wealth of new Ibsen fans,
thanks to Frank McGuinness and Michael Cabot.
The London Classic Theatre company has a proven track
record of high quality touring productions and this one will
enhance their reputation even more."
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