Haunting for Answers
GHOSTS
By Henrik
Ibsen
Directed and Choreographed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj
REBEL Theater Company (www.rebeltheater.org)
Abrons Arts Center
Equity Showcase (closed)
Review by Michael D. Jackson
Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts (1881)
became famous as a model of “naturalism” and a social-problem play, dealing
with adultery, illegitimacy and syphilis. As a social-problem play it has been
outdated for a century, and as a play of realism, it could hardly be considered
so if presented as is on a contemporary stage. In the 19th century, Ibsen’s
skill as a dramatist made Ghosts seem
natural, yet the series of coincidences that make up the plot are struck, blow
after blow, in order to break apart theatre traditions before the emergence of
Ibsen’s naturalistic theatre. For this reason, the play is on the reading list
of every Theatre Arts undergraduate. And nearly two decades ago, this writer
sat in his Modern Drama in Production class to discuss the relevance of Ibsen’s
Ghosts and likened Oswald’s venereal
disease to AIDS. Director Maharaj is not the first to
modernize the story by making it an AIDS play, but he goes beyond that to do
much more, with results that are truly astounding.
Although this Ghosts has all its ducks in a row, it
was so adapted that it might be referred to as “Maharaj’s
Ghosts,” for the setting in 1982
Jamaica during a period of extreme ignorance towards the AIDS epidemic. Ibsen’s
lines more or less remain, though they are reconstructed to work in
contemporary language of place and time. Likewise the characters’ names are
changed. Mrs. Alving becomes Mrs. Andrews and Oswald
becomes Barrington. Although the adapted dialogue can be heard as
naturalistic, the production is highly conceptual. Added into the mix is a
Greek chorus of sorts, known as orphans. The orphans literalize the ghosts of
the Andrews home by posing as framed portraits on the wall, and later in
ghostly makeup, watching the proceedings with utter stillness until they let
loose to haunt Mrs. Andrews outright. As an entr’acte to the second half, the
orphans add Jamaican flavor with a spirited tribal dance. These extras give the
production color, and perhaps the strongest reminder of the setting after the accents,
but it is no more than a novelty. If these flourishes were gone, we would still
have what is most important: an excellently acted, modern production of Ghosts. If Maharaj
needed to adapt the play to this extreme to find a way into it, he has done it
for himself and the cast, for it allows them to rise to great heights of
theatre, and that is all the audience really needs in order to enjoy a
production of an old chestnut.
The cast, one and all, is
excellent. Sharon Tshai
King as Mrs. Andrews and Edward
Davis as Barrington are superb in a revelatory scene of Barrington’s disclosure of having come home to die of AIDS. And
from the old plot point of the burning orphanage to the end, the production is
as exciting as anything seen on the stage in years. With Ibsen, the question of
whether or not Mrs. Alving administered the lethal
pills for a mercy killing of Oswald after the final curtain has either been
left up in the air, or decided upon by each new director. Ibsen himself said
that he did not know what Mrs. Alving did, but in Maharaj’s Ghosts
he is clear, giving the ending its inevitable outcome as well as reaching the
greatest dramatic potential of the story. If the REBEL Theater Company can keep
up this level of work, we shall have some exciting theatre to look forward to
in the seasons to come.
Box Score:
Writing: 2
Directing: 2
Acting: 2
Set: 2
Costumes: 2
Lighting/Sound: 2
Copyright 2006 Michael D. Jackson
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