Word: rosmer
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...left-overs of The Wild Duck are even tougher. Picking up the theme of idealism's tragic inefficiency, Rosmersholm concerns a gritty, ambitious woman who imposes on a respectable pastor the belief that he can improve mankind. While the scene never shifts from the house that has been Rosmer's family bastion for cons, Ibsen reports that there is a great liberal-conservative struggle going on outside. He also assumes that "the poor people" are more or less milling about, waiting for a self-sacrificing word from Pastor Johannes Rosmer. So much for the widely advertised politics...
Unfortunately, the idealism that Rebecca West (Andrea Peterson) would instill in Rosmer (Thom Babe) is both archaic and syrupy in sound, making the actress' job incredibly difficult. For example...
...ROSMER: Happy noble...
Miss Peterson is not up to the changes the role demands. Her ambition is but coquetry, her acute sympathy for Rosmer comes through as mere casual interest, her strength is undermined by a whining voice. Nor does her stiff body prove her capable of the regeneration which she might have offered the house of Rosmer...
Ulrik Brendel, an old mentor of Rosmer's whose life has corroded through his own illusory ambitions, was given a Chaplinesque twist by Joel Henning. As Professor Kroll, the pompous but observant conservative, Richard B. Stone heroically varies his redundant lines. Had he used his torso as flexibly, the visual effect would have been similarly less monotonous. Joel Crothers as the opportunistic radical leader whose dreams never exceed his political capabilities, and Beryl Kinross-Wright as a housekeeper, turn in two excellent performances...