Crow’s Theatre opened the season last night with a production of Ibsen’s Romersholm in an adaptation by Duncan Macmillan directed by Chris Abraham.  It’s not perhaps Ibsen’s best known play but it’s powerful and somewhat topically relevant and the production at Crow’s is excellent in every way.

We are in the late 19th century.  “Democracy” is the new thing and the ruling elite are trying to comer to terms with it.  The Rosmers have dominated the small country town of Rosmersholm for centuries and so the current scion of the family, John, is seen as key to the election locally and perhaps beyond.  But there are several twists.  John, formerly the local pastor, is not the standard bearer of traditional values the conservatives seek nor is he prepared to whole heartedly endorse the radicals.  He holds strong, rather naive, views on human equality and dignity which are not eay to express in the debased language of electoral politics.  Add to that that he’s personally compromised by the suicide of his wife (sister of the leader of the conservative faction) and that he’s living, albeit apparently chastely, with his wife’s former companion who shares his political views; indeed is in large measure responsible for them.  This being Ibsen, such contradictions can only lead to a tragic ending.

Chris Abrahams and his creative team have chosen, wisely I think, to set the piece in the time and place it depicts and every feature of the sets (Joshua Quinlan), costumes (Ming Wong) and lighting (Kimberley Purtell and Imogen Wilson) evoke the oppressive/repressed atmosphere of the “big house” in a small town of the era.  This is backed up by a brilliant sound design (Thomas Ryder Payne) that evokes the world immediately outside the walls brilliantly.  The lighting plot supports interior and exterior atmosphere equally.

The audience surrounds this gloomy space where a brilliant cast works its magic.  Ben Carlson as Governor Kroll; leader of the conservatives, is the epitome of an old school conservative.  Good manners and a genuine respect for tradition, including the Rosmer family, are coupled with utter ruthlessness when privilege is threatened.  It’s not an easy thing to convey precisely because it’s what modern “conservatives” aren’t.  Similarly the troubled couple of Jonathon Young’s John Rosmer and Virgilia Griffiths’ Rebecca West really manage to convey a kind of progressive idealism that is alien to real world “progressive” politics then as much as now.  That’s something that’s well conveyed by a clever cameo from Beau Dixon as the radical publisher Mortensgaard, and curiously, and in a very different way by the slightly mad theoretician and philosopher Ulrik Brendel played with his customary skill by Diego Matamoros.  There’s also a really good performance from Kate Hennig as the housekeeper Mrs. Helseth who belongs to an older Northern world where the past lives with the present and apparitions of horses sacrificed long ago are only to be expected.

Abraham’s direction is precise and balances tension, inevitability and an occasional dose of humour (mostly driven by the uncomfortable parallels between the play’s events and current political (un)reality) extremely well.  Things are kept moving briskly by using a group of in costumed servants as stage hands so the comparatively many scene changes are not obtrusive.  Two and a half hours flies by and leads up to a conclusion that is quite brilliantly pulled off.  A true coup de thêatre!.

There’s so much to like in this production and so little to quibble about that I imagine it will harvest a bumper crop of Doras.  See it while you can.

Rosmersholm runs at Crow’s Theatre until October 6th though given Crow’s track record I won’t be surprised if it’s extended.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz