Review - Rosmersholm (Duke of York's Theatre)

Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm is a politically charged tragedy swelling with a melancholy which seeps from every nook.

Hayley Atwell and the cast of Rosmersholm
Photo credit - Johan Persson

In a small Norwegian town, on the eve of an election which sees the conservative status quo challenged by radical new liberalist thinking, widowed atheist John Rosmer, formerly a well-respected pastor, wavers between embracing modern thinking, and buckling under the history and tradition which his family name, and home, is built on. On one side of the argument is his friend, and former companion to his deceased wife, Rebecca, whose intellect and self-sufficiency is at odds with the patriarchal thinking of the old. However, on the other side Rosmer’s brother-in-law Andreas Kroll campaigns for the ruling class to remain in what he sees as its rightful place. As both sides’ campaigning increases in ferocity, Rosmersholm becomes an epicentre of chaos, both personal and political. 

Tom Burke and Giles Terera in Rosmersholm
Photo credit - Johan Persson

Ian Rickson, former artistic director at the Royal Court Theatre, has done an extraordinary job of bringing this rarely performed Ibsen gem to the stage. Really, it could have been written yesterday. Rosmersholm is the perfect play for 2019, capturing the utter chaos of post-Brexit Britain, and the fervent tidal wave of fake news which notably swelled up in the run up to the 2016 US presidential election and has continued to wreak havoc politically ever since. 

Rae Smith's production design brings the bleakness of Rosmersholm to life; dozens of portraits hang on the walls and act as a constant reminder of the house’s proud history, meanwhile a grim line of grime and peeling paint trailing the bottom of the walls betrays the ghost of a flood which ravaged the house a year ago. That waterline, and the house’s accompanying disarray, acts as a constant symbol of guilt for Rosmer, as it betrays the upsetting and somewhat scandalous conditions of Rosmer’s late wife’s death; suicide by drowning, in the house’s adjacent millrun.

Giles Terera and Hayley Atwell in Rosmersholm

Photo credit - Johan Persson

The spectral canvas of the house is adorned with vivid, impressive performers in the play’s central trio. Hayley Atwell's Rebecca West is as enthralling & unreadable as characters get, engaging Tom Burke's disengaged John Rosmer in a precarious tug-of-war; do what's right or do what's safe. Meanwhile Giles Terera’s Kroll exudes an agitated energy as a member of the ruling class who intends to keep the lower societal classes subjugated. Yet another aspect of the play which feels uncomfortably familiar today. 

Holding a mirror up to modern day issues, while providing a glimpse into gender, society and politics of the late 1800s, Rosmersholm proves that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ibsen’s smart, sophisticated dialogue is in good hands with the trio of star leads, in a production which captures today’s rocky political climate scarily well.

I was invited to review Rosmersholm thanks to London Box Office 

Throwback - The Wild Duck @ The Barbican

Okay so in the midst of pretty much all of my first essay uni deadlines, I saw a lot of great theatre (and some not so great) but due to my immense disorganisation, I never reviewed any of it. Until now!

I was fortunate enough to win a pair of tickets to see The Wild Duck at the Barbican, thanks to  +WhatsOnStage's weekly twitter competition (which is definitely worth entering by the way). So on Friday 31st October, while the rest of my housemates dressed up for Halloween, I headed up to London to meet a friend, grab some Wasabi (also highly recommended! According to London students it's the place to eat, and I can't say I disagree!) and see the show.

'Hjalmar lives in a flat with his wife, senile father, visually impaired daughter and a duck. Still he’s reasonably content, until his old friend Gregers returns to town, armed with disturbing revelations that threaten to blow their lives apart.' (plot summery from The Barbican website)

Now, despite being a fan of Ibsen's writing, prior to winning the tickets I know almost nothing about this production other than the fact that it was a reimagining by Simon Stone. The plot didn't really jump out at me, and I wasn't exactly buzzed for it beforehand. Having said that, I really enjoyed it! The plot was very relevant to present day issues, touching on corruption, affairs and confusion surrounding paternity in a way which was both effectively dramatic, and thoroughly entertaining.

What was particularly striking for me though, was the staging. Almost all of the play's action is performed inside a large glass case on stage. Although the 'glass case' was quite a ham-handed metaphor for the play's themes, it did a great job of allowing the audience to be a fly on the wall, especially during some of the darker, more uncomfortable moments. It also highlighted an element of the plot which this play is quite famous for. Typically Ibsen's play focused on the Bourgeois society, yet The Wild Duck followed the lives of mostly lower middle class people. For an Ibsen fan like me, it was an interesting and refreshing twist on what I was used to seeing. 

The cast was made up of a number of very talented actors, although the two performances with stood out to me were those of Dan Wyllie as Greggers Werle and Anita Hegh as Gina, Hjalmar's wife. I loved the fact that although Greggers was the first character the audience was introduced to, you were never sure whether to empathise with him or not. All of his actions, although questionable, somehow seemed justified. Hegh's performance stayed with me though, due to the raw emotion with which she performed. Even in one scene where her character did nothing but slump against the glass case distraughtly, my eyes were still draw to her. Of course, the star of the show it has to be said was the live duck which appeared in multiple scenes, splashing and waddling and causing multiple unexpected laughs (the actors played against the duck very well, and despite the unintended comedy of multiple actors getting slashed quite violently in one scene, I never felt that this distracted for the performance at all.) 

All in all, the show was definitely worth a watch, and I thank +WhatsOnStage and +Barbican Theatre for my free tickets. A delightful yet devastating way to spend Halloween.

Verdict - 3 Stars

Twitter: @OddJazzShoes

Bloglovin: Talkstageytome