As Helena Alving in “Ghosts,”, Lily Rabe seems to do the exact inverse of what Jessica Chastain did as Nora Helmer in “A Doll’s House” two years ago.
Chastain sat in a chair for the whole show, along with the rest of the cast — until the final few minutes, when she finally stood up and left the theater through a backstage door into the street.
In Lincoln Center Theater’s current Off-Broadway production of “Ghosts,” Rabe stands through most of the play, but for the curtain call, sits in a chair, along with the rest of the cast.
These odd directorial choices — which are in two Ibsen productions that both felt eccentrically helmed albeit in very different ways — certainly complement one another thematically. Nora was escaping a suffocating marriage in “A Doll’s House,” which Ibsen wrote in 1879. “Ghosts,” which he wrote two years later, seems to be answering the question: What would have happened if Nora had not left?
The widow Mrs. Alving stayed married to the “depraved…drunk and degenerate” Captain Alving (as she describes him.) She did so on the stern advice of Pastor Manders (Billy Crudup), who convinced her that the moral thing was not to run away – which she might have done straight into the pastor’s arms (we eventually understand) if he had been willing.
The play, which unfolds ten years after the death of Captain Alving, reveals scene by scene the tragic consequences of adhering to the moral code of the day. Most brutal is the revelation of why Helena’s son Oswald (Levon Hawke) has suddenly come home after years of living in Paris as an artist. Helena had tried to protect her son from his father’s depredations by sending him away at an early age. But this turned out to be futile; the adulterous captain infected Oswald with a venereal disease at birth, a terminal illness that is now coming to claim him.
“A Doll’s House” was the more popular of these two Ibsen plays when they were first produced, to put it mildly. It was the savage pile-on against Ibsen because of “Ghosts” that inspired him to write “An Enemy of the People” the following year (That play was produced on Broadway for the eleventh time last year, opening nine months after the close of the fourteenth Doll’s House on Broadway.) A century and a half later, “Ghosts” is certainly more accepted, often ranked among Ibsen’s half dozen greatest plays (although never at the top.). But it seems more challenging than the others to stage well, judging from the productions I’ve seen of it, including this one. Directed by the usually reliable 85-year-old veteran Jack O’Brien, winner last year of a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, this “Ghosts” is undercut by a lack of clarity exacerbated by a vague translation and uneven acting.
The public in 19th century Norway was so scandalized by “Ghosts” because it touched on such taboo subjects as adultery, alcoholism, syphilis, incest and euthanasia. Twenty-first century American audiences are more likely to be put off by dialogue so… decorous, that these horrors are rarely spelled out. Oswald tells Mrs Alving of his diagnosis by repeating what his doctor said, that he is “worm-eaten.”
This is the word in the original English translation by William Archer, which was used first for an 1891 London production, then on Broadway, and remains the most commonly available version in English (including online) Times have changed, but that word worm-eaten remains in the new Lincoln Center translation by Irish writer Mark O’Rowe, while the word syphilis, or even venereal disease – and for that matter the words adultery, incest, alcoholism and euthanasia – are nowhere to be found.
At the same time, some efforts at updating the language are just baffling. When Helena tells Manders the truth that she’s been keeping from him all these yars – that her husband “remained just as bad as he’d been before you married us” — the pastor is skeptical. “Oh, come now,” he says. “He may have been whimsical.”
“Whimsical?!” Helena exclaims indignantly (and I shared her indignation.)
The language probably would not have mattered as much if the acting had been thoroughly transporting. But several of the performers felt miscast – perhaps cast for the wrong reasons. This “Ghosts” felt something like a family affair in more ways than usual. Oswald, Helena’s son, is portrayed by the son of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Ella Beatty, who portrays Regina the maid – who turns out to be Oswald’s illegitimate half sister – is the daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.
Hamish Linklater, who portrays Engstrand, a drunk who has been pretending to be Regina’s father, is partnered in real life with Lily Rabe (who’s the daughter of playwright David Rabe and the late actress Jill Clayburgh.)
The three older actors have an admirable track record, and all five cast members have moments in the production that are memorable. Still, except for Rabe, I sometimes had trouble finding the characters believable. Even the wonderful actor Billy Crudup, a Tony-winning Broadway veteran of three decades, who is initially unrecognizable in Manders’ gray beard, seemed too sensible to be such a naive prudish pastor.
The most riveting scene is the final one between Rabe and Hawke. A rich sunset suddenly fills the previously dark, weather-beaten wall of windows in John Lee Beatty’s effectively ominous set, but it comes too late for Oswald. Hawke seems to come to life as Oswald becomes lifeless. Before then, it was hard to see the mellow good-looking blond dressed in a fashionable all-white ensemble as either a passionate artist or a haunted invalid.
Perhaps the problem is the role itself. The last time “Ghosts” was on Broadway, in 1982 starring Liv Ulmann as Mrs. Alving, a reviewer wrote that the young actor making his Broadway debut as Oswald gave a one-note performance of “youthful ardor,” and “never convinces us that he has artistic inclinations or a terminal illness.” In retrospect, some might see that actor, Kevin Spacey, as the ideal choice for Ibsen’s scandalous play.
Ghosts
Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse through April 26
Running time: 110 minutes no intermission
Tickets: $98 – $182.50
by Henrik Ibsen in a new version by Mark O’Rowe
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by Jess Goldstein, lighting by Japhy Weideman, sound by Mark Bennett and Scott Lehrer, and original music by Mark Bennett.
Cast: Ella Beatty, Billy Crudup, Levon Hawke, Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe.
Photos by Jeremy Daniel
