The subject matter of Ghosts is grisly and morbidly fascinating; taking the dregs of society in 1870s Europe and looking at the realities behind the outward appearances of respectability. Broken marriages, adultery, incest, drunkards and syphilis are everywhere, as if inescapable. Over it all the pompous and self righteous Pastor judges and delves into the Alving family secrets, conscious of nothing but his own reputation.
This is the setting for the play, but the student production directed by Ben Bransfield has set the play in 1970s Britain, at the height of a sexual and cultural revolution and at odds with the moral climate of the 1870s. This serves to heighten the claustrophobia in the play, set in one room and surrounding a family which has not been able to move on with the times due to the ideals and standards they relentlessly uphold.
Desperate and bleak, as are most of Ibsen’s plays, the heavy atmosphere is relieved at times by the comic characters of Osvald (the son returning from an artist’s life in Paris), and Jakob (the drunken father who wants to open a hostel for sailors). This is needed in such a closed and serious setting to make the play more watchable. Even though the play is supposed to be stagnant and claustrophobic, sitting through two hours of it took a dedicated and patient audience.
The bleak setting is thankfully broken up just often enough by humour and scary moments to keep our interest. Haunting lines such as “You are worm eaten from birth” and the presence of those from the past who still haunt the house and Mrs Alving, like ghosts, make the play effectively scary at times, especially when the lights go out at importune moments and the music runs to a screaming pitch and makes you want to look away as you know what is coming. As the last hopes of salvation are lost, the play becomes predictable and spirals towards its ending.
Reputation, respectability and ideals are upheld by people to this day, protected at all costs; and the underworld of drugs, prostitution and “lost souls” who do not belong to a traditional family unit are still as unmoved by the attempts of the Pastor to guide them back to a “respectable life” as they were over 100 years ago. It makes one wonder how far we have really progressed.
This is the setting for the play, but the student production directed by Ben Bransfield has set the play in 1970s Britain, at the height of a sexual and cultural revolution and at odds with the moral climate of the 1870s. This serves to heighten the claustrophobia in the play, set in one room and surrounding a family which has not been able to move on with the times due to the ideals and standards they relentlessly uphold.
Desperate and bleak, as are most of Ibsen’s plays, the heavy atmosphere is relieved at times by the comic characters of Osvald (the son returning from an artist’s life in Paris), and Jakob (the drunken father who wants to open a hostel for sailors). This is needed in such a closed and serious setting to make the play more watchable. Even though the play is supposed to be stagnant and claustrophobic, sitting through two hours of it took a dedicated and patient audience.
The bleak setting is thankfully broken up just often enough by humour and scary moments to keep our interest. Haunting lines such as “You are worm eaten from birth” and the presence of those from the past who still haunt the house and Mrs Alving, like ghosts, make the play effectively scary at times, especially when the lights go out at importune moments and the music runs to a screaming pitch and makes you want to look away as you know what is coming. As the last hopes of salvation are lost, the play becomes predictable and spirals towards its ending.
Reputation, respectability and ideals are upheld by people to this day, protected at all costs; and the underworld of drugs, prostitution and “lost souls” who do not belong to a traditional family unit are still as unmoved by the attempts of the Pastor to guide them back to a “respectable life” as they were over 100 years ago. It makes one wonder how far we have really progressed.