Word: ibsens
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GHOSTS by Henrik Ibsen...
...theaters offer wonderfully air-conditioned alternatives to Charles Bank Beach, and under some circumstances, even another showing of Shampoo at the Harvard Square will tempt the heat stricken. Luckily, for those who refuse to sacrifice quality for comfort, the Harvard Radcliffe, Summer Theater exists. Its current production of Henrik Ibsen's The Pillars of Society rapidly captivates and carries sweltering. Cantabrigians to where the heat arises from social pressure, and the sweat from fear...
...Cantor's interpretation of Ibsen's two-act drama emphasizes the playwright's humor, lightening up a script that tends toward the didactic. The Pillars of Society concerns one seemingly model family whose patriarch must admit to his actual deceit when the family's "black sheep" return home to clear their own names. The title refers to this false moral leader. Karsten Bernick, and his business cohorts, who pursue personal profits under the banner of working for the common good. They are supported by their equally hypocritical wives, members of an aid society for fallen women who are more dedicated...
...Ibsen attacks this Janus-faced samaritanism and also takes on the dilemmas of pride versus resignation, of profit and progress versus human interest. If played straight, this show could be rather sanctimonious. The speeches about lives based on lies are heavy handed even in Cantor's production, but the superb cast and quick pace play up Pillars farcical aspects. Props such as loud ties, when sacal scenery and an office suspended in mid air, beguile the audience...
...stunning incompetence, while Graczyk, the executive director of the Columbus Players Theater, has overloaded his 5 & Dime with enough junky symbolism to warrant an eviction notice. As each character is stripped of her life-sustaining illusion, it becomes obvious that though the setting is Texas, we are really in Ibsen's Norway. That sound at the end is not applause, but wild ducks flapping overhead, vainly trying to find a play on which they can comfortably land. -By Gerald Clarke