As Soulpepper rings out its 2011 season, dysfunctional families have been the theme du jour, from Arthur Miller’s The Price to Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. So it’s rather fitting that Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts — host to the mother of all dysfunctional families in dramatic literature — is helping to bookend the spellbinding season. With its closing date marked for Nov. 18, those who haven’t had the chance to watch this gripping production definitely should.
It’s important to note that the “ghosts” referenced throughout the piece are not apparitions or boogey men. These particular ghosts are much, much scarier. They symbolize hypocrisy, deceit, infidelity and even venereal disease: indiscretions of the past that continue to haunt the lives of the characters, whether they know it or not.
When the play first premiered in 1882, it was deemed “shocking” (as many of Ibsen’s works were) for its frank commentary on what was then a taboo topic. Flash-forward 130 years later, and the shock value has worn off considerably, but the pain of being unable to change one’s circumstances due to an uncontrollable past still resonates. Morris Panych’s use of naturalism in his direction, as well as his ability to find humour in Ibsen’s lines, helps to remove any alienation that plays rooted in modernism (especially those that are as dark and loaded as Ibsen’s) usually endow upon their audiences.
As seems to be customary with reviews on Ghosts, I won’t reveal too much about the play’s plot. I’ve hinted at its darkness, but it does convey lightness, too. In the play, Oswald Alving (portrayed with devastating honesty by Gregory Prest), speaks of a “life force” inside of him. Regine, the housemaid (a sweet-yet-strong turn by Michelle Monteith), also mentions that she too has a “life force” she needs to see to. This “life force” is what Ibsen believed everyone had but inevitably suppressed due to societal restrictions that forced them to never speak the truth — their truth. This belief is best personified in the character of Mrs. Alving, played with a perfect mix of self-restraint and genuine emotion by Nancy Palk. No one else struggles with what they “should” do more than this tortured character, whose buried secrets have shut off her own “life force.”
The action takes place in the garden room of a damp country house in 19th century Norway. Whenever I’m fortunate enough to watch a Soulpepper performance, the very first aspect I notice of the production is the set design. Time and again, I am amazed at the intricacy to detail, as well as the sense of life that the sets possess. Ken MacDonald’s set does not disappoint. Its dark, dungeon-like appeal appropriately hints at the chains of the past that bind the Alving family. Also, Alan Brodie’s lighting design must be acknowledged for its realistic variety.
If there is anything one can take with them after seeing this powerful production, it is this: we all have a “life force” inside of us, but it cannot be fully attained if we don’t deal with the ghosts of the past.
Ghosts, Yonge Centre for the Performing Arts, runs until Nov. 18
