CityLife

Ghosts

Ghosts
Bolton Octagon
October 30, 2009

DAVID Thacker, the Octagon’s new artistic director, has kicked off his reign with two of his party pieces. First it was an Arthur Miller and now it’s Ibsen’s Ghosts, which he famously directed starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Miller was greatly influenced by the great Norwegian’s ideas, and to underline the thread, Thacker has cast four of the principle actors in both productions.

This highly idiomatic new translation, with major contributions from the cast and director, sets it somewhere in Lancashire, still late nineteenth century.

The playing style goes for the laid back, low-key, conversational, in the first act, as the plot is being set, before the conflagration erupts.

The problem is that despite claims that the play is still a tract for today, it isn’t.

It is of historical interest but has dated beyond present day relevance, impossible really to surmount the script’s melodrama and make it believable, despite this being a very good try.

Until November 21, 2009.