Recent arts coverage:
- Evolutionary biology. Aesthetic determinism. Live action role playing. The Rude Mechs are making a new play again
- Suburban battlefield: Women fight invisible foe in Amie Siegel’s ‘Black Moon’
- In eerie paintings by Ana Fernandez, a house isn’t just a house
More arts coverage | Follow this blog on Twitter @artsinaustin | Read recent arts reviews
Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > October > 18 > Entry
Review: Ibsen’s “Ghosts”
Though October may be the special season for donning costumes and seeking thrills, artists have spent lifetimes exploring the ways in which people try to escape the pasts that haunt them.
With their current production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts,” running now through Nov. 5 at Hyde Park Theater, the team of Breaking String Theater and Penfold Theatre Company are reincarnating a modern classic.
The play is as much about isolation as it is about the past, and it illustrates the struggles of a strong woman living in a man’s world. At the mercy first of her former husband, now the prudish Pastor Manders (Michael Stewart), Mrs. Alving (Babs George) has limited control over her own life.
More bumbling than brimstone, the Pastor is repeatedly hoodwinked by artificially penitent parishioners such as Jakob Engstrand (Travis Dean). Manders has nothing but faith in men, but he’s so blinded by his own commitment to ideals that he lacks appropriate empathy for his female flock. Yet the women of the play seem to be the only ones capable of recognizing the difference between truth and ideals.
In her role as the enduring widow, Babs George performs with strength, compassion, and a twinkle of spunky rebellion. Unlike some of Ibsen’s other female figures, Mrs. Alving is a doting mother, fiercely protective of her effete and emotionally volatile son, Osvald (Ryan Crowder), whom she exiled at an early age for his own protection.
A story that traces the consequences of seduction and debauchery, dissipation and hypocrisy, “Ghosts” scandalized its original Victorian audiences. For contemporary audiences accustomed to profanity and even occasional nudity onstage, the play’s oblique allusions to syphilis and the frank discussion of “fallen women” are unlikely to shock. And while in some ways the play feels stilted and old-fashioned, director Graham Schmidt strives (with limited success) to make it culturally relevant by adding flourishes of modern staging.
Ia Enstera’s set design is a jarring contrast of heavy-handed literalism (a web-like backdrop to the second act’s discussion of strings and threads) and period-appropriate pieces of furniture. Similarly, Steven Shirey’s fondness for saturated lighting works well to create an overall ambiance of gloom on the isolated Norwegian island where the play is set, but the lighting effects occasionally veer into unnecessary and melodramatic shifts.
Opening weekend also made clear the difficulties of a short rehearsal period necessitated by employing members of the Actors’ Equity Association. Even the most seasoned performers were occasionally tripping over lines, but this is sure to improve as the run continues.
“Ghosts” continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Nov. 5. Tckets $20 ($18 for students). Hyde Park Theatre, www.hydeparktheatre.org
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Comments
When commenting, we ask that you keep things civil and abide by our Visitor Agreement. To report comment abuse, click here.