Main Menu
Login
Online
There are 26 unlogged users and 0 registered users online.
You can log-in or register for a user account here.
You can log-in or register for a user account here.
Bolton.
GHOSTS
by Henrik Ibsen translated by Erik Skuggevik.
Octagon Theatre To 21 November 2009.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 October.
Risky stab at Ibsen’s back to the future drama.
David Thacker’s being cunning as new Artistic Director at the Octagon, stamping his identity on the stage with two of his recognised strong points, Arthur Miller and Henrik Ibsen. Ghosts shares with its Octagon predecessor, Miller’s All My Sons, Patrick Connellan’s unconventional setting – a raised glass floor under which is visible parched earth; for both plays’ characters are living false lives.
But whereas All My Sons stuck to Miller’s American mid-forties, Ghosts has been transferred to late Victorian Lancashire. And Thacker’s cast adopt a near-defiantly plain approach. This is Ibsen in period dress but modern guise.
For a time it works. Pastor Manders’ views, the opposite to Ibsen’s, seem risible to modern theatre audiences. But he isn’t some Molière comic butt. In his time Manders was orthodoxy. Ibsen hated his unthinking opinions, but the Pastor’s word would have had authority in society and Mrs Alving must be aware of this; even Bohemian-loving Oswald (who soon reverts to type, including his father’s pipe, upon returning home) has to be aware he’s speaking out against someone who could raise the moral majority on his side.
Here, down-to-earth modernism helps hold back laughter at Manders’ confident expression for some time. But the performance isn’t rooted in the society Thacker’s creating, and seems out of focus - partly because the character’s accent is dislocated from any aspect of the setting.
In contrast, local accents strengthen Regina and her ‘father’ Engstrand’s separation from the middle-classes he outwits, pointing up also how different her life has been because of secrecy about her past. There's good work from Vanessa Kirby (never overdoing the self-seeking) and Russell Richardson. Yet Margot Leicester’s Helena Alving is the production’s heart.
Leicester suggests a life of anxiety made more intense by an intelligence that sees through Manders (perhaps a source for Bernard Shaw’s Candida and her husband) while coping with fears from the past and hopes for her son’s future. The dashing of these bring her to the edge, while the past lumbers her life visually in the model orphanage sitting on the huge table dominating the stage and limiting her space.
Regina Engstrand: Vanessa Kirby.
Jacob Engstrand: Russell Richardson.
Pastor Manders: George Irving.
Helena Alving: Margot Leicester.
Oswald Alving: Oscar Pearce.
Director: David Thacker.
Designer: Patrick Connellan.
Lighting: James Farncombe.
Sound: Andy Smith.
Music consultant: Carol Sloman.
Movement: Lesley Hutchison.
Assistant director: Elizabeth Newman.
GHOSTS
by Henrik Ibsen translated by Erik Skuggevik.
Octagon Theatre To 21 November 2009.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 October.
Risky stab at Ibsen’s back to the future drama.
David Thacker’s being cunning as new Artistic Director at the Octagon, stamping his identity on the stage with two of his recognised strong points, Arthur Miller and Henrik Ibsen. Ghosts shares with its Octagon predecessor, Miller’s All My Sons, Patrick Connellan’s unconventional setting – a raised glass floor under which is visible parched earth; for both plays’ characters are living false lives.
But whereas All My Sons stuck to Miller’s American mid-forties, Ghosts has been transferred to late Victorian Lancashire. And Thacker’s cast adopt a near-defiantly plain approach. This is Ibsen in period dress but modern guise.
For a time it works. Pastor Manders’ views, the opposite to Ibsen’s, seem risible to modern theatre audiences. But he isn’t some Molière comic butt. In his time Manders was orthodoxy. Ibsen hated his unthinking opinions, but the Pastor’s word would have had authority in society and Mrs Alving must be aware of this; even Bohemian-loving Oswald (who soon reverts to type, including his father’s pipe, upon returning home) has to be aware he’s speaking out against someone who could raise the moral majority on his side.
Here, down-to-earth modernism helps hold back laughter at Manders’ confident expression for some time. But the performance isn’t rooted in the society Thacker’s creating, and seems out of focus - partly because the character’s accent is dislocated from any aspect of the setting.
In contrast, local accents strengthen Regina and her ‘father’ Engstrand’s separation from the middle-classes he outwits, pointing up also how different her life has been because of secrecy about her past. There's good work from Vanessa Kirby (never overdoing the self-seeking) and Russell Richardson. Yet Margot Leicester’s Helena Alving is the production’s heart.
Leicester suggests a life of anxiety made more intense by an intelligence that sees through Manders (perhaps a source for Bernard Shaw’s Candida and her husband) while coping with fears from the past and hopes for her son’s future. The dashing of these bring her to the edge, while the past lumbers her life visually in the model orphanage sitting on the huge table dominating the stage and limiting her space.
Regina Engstrand: Vanessa Kirby.
Jacob Engstrand: Russell Richardson.
Pastor Manders: George Irving.
Helena Alving: Margot Leicester.
Oswald Alving: Oscar Pearce.
Director: David Thacker.
Designer: Patrick Connellan.
Lighting: James Farncombe.
Sound: Andy Smith.
Music consultant: Carol Sloman.
Movement: Lesley Hutchison.
Assistant director: Elizabeth Newman.