Word: ibsenism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Ibsen's world, the legacy of past generations is not knowledge but blameless suffering. This series of revelations leads not to a liberated consciousness but to a tortured tangle of frustrated desire, mental illness, incest and guilt. Self-awareness frees characters from societal ghosts but plunges them deeper into their own personal nightmares...
SUCH SLAVE souls as ours!" wrote Ibsen in 1882. "Norway is a free country peopled by unfree men and women." When Ghosts was first produced, critics condemned the "morbid, unhealthy, unwholesome and disgusting story...
Mainstage director Stephen Kolzak has adapted the play to contemporary Europe, drastically altering the context of Ibsen's plot. Much of the play is a dialectic between Alving's vision and Manders's morality; modernization of script and set has reversed their roles. What was once Alving's radical individualism becomes the commonplace assertion of a "liberated woman." Manders, formerly the embodiment of societal mores, is now the anachronism: his fervent preaching seems too silly to be evil. In the 1970's, fighting convention is convention and criticizing the establishment is the main chore of that establishment...
...advantage of his newly-created role of pariah with brilliant results. Kolzak's adaptation enables Epstein to seize a once shallow caricature of a clergyman and transform it into a complex, brooding performance. Karen Ross is a good Mrs. Alving, adding a layer of sophisticated and casual confidence to Ibsen's troubled widow. Stephen Kolzak as the tortured painter Oswald gives an excellent performance; his harrowing breakdown is the one scene where emotion transcends Ibsen's carefully orchestrated social commentaries. Sidney Atwood as Engstrand and Helena Snow as the ambitious Regina handle modernization less effectively by dipping into stereotype. Atwood...
...Drama entails entering a world not our own, and that involvement is not necessarily made smoother when the characters wear Bloomingdales' outfits and mutter in student slang. "Relevance" has little to do with decade or decor. Adaptation often weakens the playwright's intentions; Kolzak's Ghosts in surface mirrors Ibsen but in substance is worlds apart...