In the Playbill for Lincoln Center Theater’s marvelous production of Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen, who wrote the play in 1881, is “considered the father of the modern drama” but I would add another description of the great playwright: “father of feminist drama.” How incredible to think that this 144-year-old play still feels relevant, most especially in its depiction of its female protagonist, Helena Alving. And anyone familiar with Ibsen’s first success, A Doll’s House, should not be surprised. In that play, protagonist Nora shockingly slams the door on her stifling marriage, abandoning both her husband and children. In Ghosts, Ibsen is said to have imagined what would happen to a wife and mother in a similarly miserable marriage who leaves her husband but then returns. It’s pretty clear whose side Ibsen was on, as Helena suffers a bleak existence with the husband she describes as “debauched and depraved.” The entire action of the play takes place in a single day, and despite a few plot contrivances, it’s a stunning work, enhanced greatly by Mark O’Rowe’s terrific adaptation and a stellar cast under the pristine direction of Jack O’Brien.
Ghosts had a rough start when it was first published in Norway. The play was regarded as scandalous in Europe and it took a brave theater in Chicago to be the first to produce it. Ibsen is said to have taken it all in stride, saying he knew the play would shock readers; otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to write it in the first place. He boldly took on many cultural taboos of the day: rape, prostitution, alcoholism, unwed mothers, incest, syphilis, all the while condemning church teachings. Ibsen was particularly critical of conventional morality which he found hypocritical and, as expressed in Ghosts, inevitably tragic. That’s a lot to cover in 110 intermissionless minutes, but this company is more than up to the challenge.
Through exposition we learn that many years earlier, Helena (Lily Rabe), trapped in a loveless marriage with a man she despised, walked out on him and their young son Oswald (Levon Hawke). But she was persuaded by her upstanding pastor Manders (Billy Crudup) to return home and carry out her wifely duties. She managed for a time but when she discovered that her husband fathered an illegitimate child with their maid, she decided to send young Oswald away in an effort to shield him from his father’s “wanton” lifestyle.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
The action of the play takes place ten years after the death of Captain Alving and we learn that the family’s young maid, Regina (Ella Beatty), is the illegitimate child who ended up being adopted by the local carpenter Engstrand (Hamish Linklater). All that time Helena decided to maintain the pretense of a proper widow, honoring her late husband by constructing an orphanage in his name. The formal opening is set for the evening and she confesses to Manders that her life up to this point has been a lie in an effort to protect her son. She tells him she despises “all those awful beliefs and ideas we inherit from our elders.” They have a very pointed exchange in which she cites “God” and “law,” saying “There you have two sources of most of the misery in the world.” And now she’s finally ready to exorcise the ghost of her husband once and for all by revealing the truth.
If only it was that easy! When 25-year-old Oswald returns after many years living the life of a free-spirited artist in Paris, the haunting continues as the sins of his father are not so easy to escape after all.
Casting is key in this work which could so easily turn into melodrama. Lily Rabe, a beautifully instinctive actor, returns to the stage after a lengthy hiatus and she is sublime, embodying Helena’s painful struggle to reconcile the truth of her unhappy life amid demands of propriety.
Her real life husband, Hamish Linklater, is equally impressive, imbuing the duplicitous Engstrand with natural charm.
Billy Crudup never disappoints. The versatile actor delivers a multi-dimensional portrait of a weak cleric unable to shake the dogma of religious beliefs. And both of the younger performers do their celebrity parents proud. Ella Beatty, daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, captures Regina’s dual personalities. As a young woman raised under dubious circumstances she is not so innocent as she seems. And Levon Hawke, son of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, has clearly come into his own. He pulls off his final scene – an almost impossible challenge – with shattering authenticity.
Mark O’Rowe does fine work, honoring the author’s intent while subtly framing the words in contemporary vernacular. Jack O’Brien helms the entire production with tremendous economy and restraint. I’m not sure why he chose to begin with the performers appearing to rehearse with scripts in hand. That bit of direction is not in O’Rowe’s script. It was a relief to see them discard the scripts after a few minutes. With the exception of Japhy Weideman’s gorgeous blue-hued, rain-soaked lighting, this is not a technically showy production. The creative team wisely focused their collaborative efforts on the powerful text.
Ibsen was a disciplined writer who knew how to weave a concise tale. With just five characters, he managed to expose the gamut of sins plaguing polite society back then. The brilliance and foresight of the work is that we’re still contending with the same hypocrisy today. It’s been said that Ibsen’s genius is his ability to hold up a mirror to society. With this first rate production, that image doesn’t look all that different today.
Ghosts opened March 10, 2025, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and runs through April 26. Tickets and information: lct.org
