| “Gary Owen’s audacious rewiring of Ibsen. Wild and stirring performance by Callum Scott Howells" |
Ghosts |
| Lyric Theatre Hammersmith , Lyric Theatre Hammersmith , May 1, 2025 |
“Rachel O’Riordan’s direction brings a piercing visual clarity”. That was the opening line to a review from Edinburgh of Owen McCafferty’s “Unfaithful”. The year was 2014, prior to the Sherman and the fateful meeting with another Owen. “Ghosts” is one more fruitful fusion of “O and O”, director and author. The same phrase “piercing visual clarity” applies. So too the phrase from 2014 “Rachel O’Riordan has elicited performances of brilliance.” It is admittedly a carefully composed company of five: Victoria Smurfit at the centre, in brilliant extrovert white, Patricia Allison and Callum Scott Howells as the younger generation, bonded in a way which is the centre of the play's revelation. Deka Walmsley's Jacob punctuates the action subtly and forcefully. Rhashan Stone as Andersen is that Ibsen familiar, the man of conscience who, not so far as Gregers Werle, is not to be bended by circumstance of emotional loyalty. The performances are all richly textured. The stage of the Lyric, not vast but not small either, is used to its full for visual and dramatic effect. As to whether it is Ibsen, it is. As to whether it is the full Ibsen, not quite. It is quite hard now to see Ibsen unfiltered, a situation described by Aleks Sierz a few years back: “Theatre conventions are a funny thing. Today, it’s actually quite difficult to see a modern classic dressed in the clothes and performed on the set of its specific historical period. It has to be in contemporary dress. And in a contemporary setting. It’s almost as if producers and directors no longer trust audiences to use their imaginations – poor public.” Sierz was prompted by Van Hove landing on “Hedda Gabler”. “Von Hove’s directing too often veers away from the stillness of emotional truth, and towards the showy exaggerations of histrionic performance.” And a year later Ibsen was not just adapted, but completely rewritten, by the usually wonderful Robert Icke. Michael Billington raged: “One of my bêtes noir, a production of The Wild Duck by Robert Icke, who admitted it was after Ibsen and not the strict text, but, at the same time, he rewrote it in ways that I thought were superfluous and nonsensical. It’s a play that needs no tinkering with, I think. Robert Icke symbolises to me the idea that the director is the supreme being. The great directors—and I’ve mentioned four of them—are interpreters of these plays. They don’t see themselves as imposing themselves on the plays. They are excavating the plays to find their true meaning. “This parasitic rewrite treats a masterpiece as a lecture and totally overlooks Ibsen’s elusive comedy Everything that is latent in Ibsen is blatant in Icke.” And then there was Brad Birch taking to “An Enemy of the People” with an utter irresponsibility. Against this trio were a trio of good things. “Ibsen Relocated to Kolkata: Bold and Brilliant” was the heading 18th September 2019 for Tanika Gupta's “A Doll's House”, also directed by Rachel O'Riordan. In 2019 Duncan Macmillan did an adaptation of “Rosmersholm” and it was, stunningly, the real thing. So too in 2022 when Hytner directed Simon Russell Beale as John Gabriel Borkman. Back at “Ghosts” the riveting production gets a late haziness. In Ibsen the corruption of the past is manifest in an inheritance, biological, that is inescapable. In this “Ghosts” the inheritance is a psychological impact, which, for all the magnificence of Callum Scott Howells and company, is not ineluctable. The critics liked what they saw. * * * * From the Telegraph: “Quite a lot of the original Ghosts is missing in Gary Owen’s audacious rewiring of Ibsen’s once scandalous sins-of-the-fathers tragedy. It ditches the syphilis, the insurance, or lack of it, and the outbreak of fire that dooms Mrs Alving’s orphanage (here a hospital for sick children) in the name of updating and relocates the action to a remote part of present-day England (where at least it still rains). “One can dial up the darkness and the gloom in Ibsen’s masterpiece, in which there is no escaping the poisoned legacy of the recently deceased, diseased, womanising Captain, either for his widowed wife or her deeply damaged son Oswald. Or you can strip out the brooding atmospherics and amp up the comedy, as Owen and director Rachel O Riordan do sometimes riskily here in a clean bright, often gruesomely funny production, in which the swirling mist battering the glass windows at the back of the stage is the most potent symbol of the moral murk swathing its protagonists. “Some of Owen’s updates are deft – there is the persuasive suggestion that Oz’s sickness is an internalised manifestation of same violent misogyny demonstrated by his father, in a production steeped in a 21st-century literacy regarding toxic power dynamics and the brutalising impact of abuse.” “I’m not convinced Owen needed to tinker with the text to the extent he does, and I’ve certainly seen more emotionally concentrated Ghosts than this. Yet Scott Howells’s wild, ultimately deeply moving performance just about holds this production together, and in its comic daring brings a spirit of subversion that feels very Ibsenite.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/ghosts-lyric-hammersmith-review-callum-scott-howells/ * * * * And the Guardian: “When Henrik Ibsen published Ghosts in 1881 – plays then were often released as texts with no production scheduled – the content (sexual transgression, venereal disease, suicide) so shocked many booksellers that they banned it. The book was reviewed in newspapers but with such fury that no Norwegian theatre would stage it; Chicago hosted the world premiere the following year. The playwright was so shaken that he wrote a great drama about ostracism, An Enemy of the People. "Almost a century and a half later, and with anything going in most areas of life, it’s tough for a modern production to still deliver a Ghosts spooked by taboos. But Rachel O’Riordan’s staging of Gary Owen’s new version achieves it. “...The original contains (1881 plot-spoiler) a strand about assisted dying that is hotly topical now. Owen boldly jettisons that and the VD theme but still constructs a shocking plot around guilt, consent and, drawing audible shock, a plot line overlapping with season three of HBO’s The White Lotus. The play’s theme of terrible familial and social inheritance survives in jagged dialogue that gives “home” and “safe” dark new meanings. “Ghosts exemplifies Ibsen’s creed that the key events of a play take place before it starts: everyone is either hiding, or having hidden, something from them. The actors grippingly chart the negotiation of these secrets and suspicions.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/apr/17/ghosts-review-ibsen-taboos-lyric-hammersmith-london * * * * The Standard: “Rachel O’Riordan’s production is impeccably cast, with riveting central performances from Rivals/Cold Feet star Victoria Smurfit — returning to the stage after 17 years away — as Helena and It’s a Sin’s Callum Scott Howells as her son Oz. It stumbles slightly towards the end but remains a wrenching, scorching piece of theatre. Did I mention it’s also horribly funny? “Designer Merle Hensel decks the set’s side walls with back views of Carl’s thuggish head, while the rear is all smoke and murk. “Ibsen’s themes, about the way abuse begets abuse and the hypocrisy of the pious, prove effortlessly relevant to our times. Pretty much everyone is compromised here, or exposed for their selfishness, and there are fresh potshots at gentrification and the corruption of the rich. Knowledge of the original isn’t essential to thoroughly enjoy this version, but it does enable you to spot felicities and occasional jarring notes. "In this antibiotic age, though, Owen has to diverge from Ibsen’s symbol of inherited vice, syphilis. This leads him, intriguingly, into a debate on consent that’s brought electrically alive by Smurfit. The legacy of shame is psychological rather than physical here, and it doesn’t entirely ring true that Oz should emulate or exceed his father’s debasement. It feels like Owen is groping towards an equivalence he can’t entirely grasp.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/ghosts-lyric-hammersmith-review * * * * From “the Stage” "Owen’s revised, contemporary-language dialogue feels on-the-nose at times. Yet there is an appealing thread of pitch-black humour running through the text."" "O’Riordan’s taut staging teases out the uncomfortable humour embedded in every scene, drawing shocked laughter and squeals of discomfort from the audience."" "Victoria Smurfit is utterly gripping as wealthy widow Helena...swings between fragility and steely resolve, indignantly raging one moment, flinching in terror the next."" Source: subscription site * * * * The Arts Desk: “This “bold reimagining” (reimaginings are always bold) marks a fifth partnership between writer, Gary Owen, and director (Lyric Hammersmith’s Artistic Director) Rachel O’Riordan. That history matters, because the production is closer to being "After Ibsen", inspired by his Ghosts rather than a version thereof, so much detail changed to transport the play from the 1880s Norwegian coastal retreat to a 2020s English country house. But the two collaborators helm that journey with a sure hand and reap the reward of a play fiercely staking out its place in the here and now. “...In a tremendous ensemble cast (Anna Cooper has done a wonderful job finding such a team) Victoria Smurfit holds the centre, as does Helena in her house. Sometimes coquettish, often vulnerable, sometimes thin-skinned, often hard-nosed, she captures the contradictions of a woman born with looks, money and brains, but who cannot find a route out of the physical and psychological prison into which she stumbled, her husband the ruthless jailer, even posthumously. It is due to the sensitivity of the performance and quality of the writing that we have to remind ourselves of the oceanic privilege she enjoys. But it’s not enough – such advantages have their limits – as the past, and those ghosts, catch up with her accommodations with the truth, reality biting very hard indeed.” “...Overwhelming might be the mot juste for a production that burns slowly at first but builds into an emotional conflagration that leaves you in mind of Philip Larkin’s infamous verdict on your mum and dad. “ Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://theartsdesk.com/theatre/ghosts-lyric-hammersmith-theatre * * * * The Independent: “In Ghosts, Gary Owen reimagines Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece as a sharp, funny and gut-punching domestic drama set in a misty, grey corner of modern Wales. The result is a striking tale of reputation, self-preservation and the cost of parental sacrifice, delivered with biting wit and tour de performances. “Victoria Smurfit plays Helena, a woman calmly orchestrating the opening of a new hospital in honour of her late husband. But behind her crisp white athleisure and carefully constructed smile is a woman haunted – not just by the memory of her abusive spouse, but by the choices she made to protect her son from the same fate. But when that son, Oz (Callum Scott Howells), returns from London full of resentment over his cold and distant childhood, secrets start to unravel at a dizzying pace. “Owen’s script is pacy and electric, efficiently unpacking years of backstory without ever getting bogged down. The dialogue is tight and intelligent, often laugh-out-loud funny, and never afraid to lean into emotional discomfort. “Smurfit gives a masterful performance as the coldly flirtatious and emotionally evasive Helena. She doesn’t play her slow deterioration with hysteria, instead leaning into a quiet, heart-sinking desperation that hits harder. Shame bubbles beneath her polished surface, erupting in bursts of avoidant behaviour as she refuses to acknowledge the horrors she is retelling. “Reuniting with Romeo and Juliet director Rachel O’Riordan, Howells delivers yet another reminder of why he’s one of the most exciting actors on stage today. He commands the space with total ease, the only performer to truly use it to his advantage – slamming, stomping, touching and pacing with restless energy that perfectly captures Oz’s entitlement and need for attention. "..Ghosts is a sharp, snappy reimagining of a classic. Gary Owen’s adaptation manages to be both darkly entertaining and emotionally resonant, pulling audiences into its inky depths with witty dialogue and surprising humour.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/ghosts-lyric-henrik-ibsen-lyric-review-b2734968.html * * * * London Theatre: “Though our sensibilities have mellowed in the almost 150 years since Ibsen’s Ghosts sparked an outcry over its candour around venereal diseases and euthanasia, it’s reassuring to know our squeamish disapproval of incest is still very much intact. The relationship between half-siblings Oswald (here Oz) and Regina (now Reggie) is ratcheted up in playwright Gary Owen’s ruminative retelling of the Norwegian-Danish classic, which shifts the story to an unspoken seaside location in roughly contemporary Britain, and reunites him with his frequent collaborator, director Rachel O’Riordan. “The vision of this reworking is always vivid but it sometimes struggles to hit the mark. Like a game of darts, its arrows skirt the impactful bullseye, hitting the surrounding rings marked ‘high comedy’ and ‘melodrama’. But Owen and O’Riordan deliver a production you can’t tear your eyes from, as much as you want to at times. And watching It’s a Sin’s Callum Scott Howells (who was also superb in Owen and O’Riordan’s Romeo and Julie) sulk and flounce as irritable actor Oz, opposite Rivals’ Victoria Smurfit as his icily bullish mother Helena, is indeed very funny.” “...Merle Hensel’s set visually facilitates this turning a blind eye, cloaking the rear of the stage in a thick sea mist that obscures a back wall mirror, preventing these characters from seeing themselves truly.” Abridged, with thanks and acknowledgement, from the full review which can be read at: https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/ghosts-review-lyric-hammersmith |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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