Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog

Robert Icke, the master of reinvention, is at it again. After Greek Tragedy, Shakespeare, Chekov and Schiller, it’s now Ibsen. Good to report that at the other end, out comes a play that feels contemporary, faithful to Ibsen’s story, with overt parallels with the playwright’s own life. I haven’t liked all of his reinventions, but I did like this one.

The Woods family business is destroyed by senior employee Francis Ekdal, who goes to prison as a result. Charles Woods, though, financially supports Ekdal’s son James and his wife Gina & daughter Helga, and even Francis Ekdal on his release. When estranged son Gregory Woods, a very good friend of James, returns he decides to reveal Gina’s secret, which begins a series of events which ends in tragedy. Gregory’s intentions may have been good, but the consequences far from it, as the world of the Ekdal family collapses.

We’ve lost five characters, mostly ‘staff’ who wouldn’t fit the modern setting. The Werle’s have become the Woods, and some forenames have been changed. The most radical change is the addition of narration and commentary about truth, lies and Ibsen’s life, by characters who they pick up a microphone to talk direct to the audience. We start with a bare stage, which acquires some furniture and props as we go along, but it remains minimalist, though there is a bit of a design coup d’theatre at the end.

Though puzzling at the outset, it does draw you in and becomes much more dramatic than vanilla Ibsen, helped by a superb set of performances from a fine cast. Clever stuff.