GHOSTS. To 4 May.
London
GHOSTS
by Henrik Ibsen translated and adapted by Ingmar Bergman
Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden at Barbican Theatre To 4 May 2003
Runs 2hr 55min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 May
A fine central performance in a curiously uneven production.No wonder director Ingmar Bergman places Pernilla August's Helen Alving in front of us before the action begins – we see her with her family, son Osvald and step-daughter Regina at the end. August gives a majestic, humanly touching performance, the crown of this uneven production.
Bergman's cavalier with Ibsen's script, importing and exporting segments. Frivolous circumstances are elbowed aside to focus on the responsibility for personal decisions, and their impact on relationships.
Less happily, Bergman opts for explicit sex. Doubtless randy young Osvald would run his arms along Regina's legs as her long skirt gives way – though it's not far from the behaviour he condemns in 'respectable' French visitors to artistic Paris. More importantly, it doesn't fit the play's world.
It's vital Mrs Alving's response to hearing Regina's pleasured cries relates to the ghosts that walk again – Osvald as chip off the paternal block. After these explicit displays – modern in stage presentation if not specifically so in human behaviour – there's a danger her shock will be diffused in the jarring of her son's behaviour with Ibsen's coldly formal world.
For some reason Bergman chooses to set the action in a simplified room – a huge curve looking out on a spindly tree. Entrances come through curtains either side the front stage. Unrealistically too, the room's curve is matched by a visible rack of theatre lighting overhead. Yet the dank green, with pictures largely obscured behind translucent wall coverings, gives an eerie sense of suppression and concealment.
It's hard to find in this Pastor Manders the man to whom Helen Alving once wished to give her life. Now, he's encrusted in pomposity. Osvald undergoes several physical indignities, notably spending time with a face so white his mother would have been rushing him to bed and plying him with thermometers and remedies. Of course, his final collapse leads to him rolling naked on the floor: that's clearly the way madness lies.
Both Engstrands do well, with a mature Regina who stands up for herself with unfussy dignity. Finally, though, it's August's quiet, unaffected, deeply affecting vulnerability that justifies bringing this production to the Barbican.
Mrs Helen Alving: Pernilla August
Osvald Alving: Jonas Malmsjo
Pastor Manders: Jan Malmsjo
Jacob Engstrand: Orjan Ramberg
Regine Engstrand: Angela Kovacs
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Designer: Goran Wassberg
Lighting: Pierre Leveau
Sound: Jan Eric Piper
Music: Arvo Part
Wigs/Make-up: Leif Qvistrom, Jan Kindahl
2003-05-09 01:28:50