The
Stage
20th January 2006
John Thaxter
Bryan Hands' powerfully focused
staging opens the UK's contribution to Ibsen
Year 2006... At the heart of this revival is a splendidly
spirited performance by Frances Cuka,
not the usual stodgy matron struggling with evasions but a mature Mrs
Alving, still with a romantic lust for life and a readiness
to face unpalatable truths.
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Roger
Sansom plays the unctuous but soon to be unsettled Pastor
Manders, while Richard Galazka makes
a particularly handsome Osvald, whose
confrontation with his mother and descent into sickness and apparent
death in her arms, brings the play to its powerfully tragic conclusion. Terry
Ashe gives a well-observed, cleverly detailed performance
as the dubious carpenter Engstrand, first in a sustained and
lively opening scene with Samantha Drew as
his bold young daughter Regine, later
bringing effective comc playing to his encounter with Sansom's Manders. Prav
Menon-Johansson's design is a conventional well-furnished
living room, giving access to a dining room beyond, a real achievement
in the studio's awkward space, even deploying the steps to the
theatre bar as part of the setting. |
The
British Theatre Guide
2006
John Thaxter
Most recent revivals have provided a field day for directors
and designers - Ingmar Bergman among
them - leading to ghost effects, spooky lighting, oppressive
walls and obtrusive make-up. So it comes as a relief to
see the play given a wholly conventional, naturalistic staging,
in a style that would have been familiar to Ibsen and his contemporaries. Beautifully
designed by Prav Menon-Johansson,
the playing space is a handsomely furnished living room with
a pine floor and Scandinavian stove, giving access to a dining
room beyond: no mean feat in the New Wimbledon
Studio's usually intractable playing space - even the
steps to the theatre bar becoming part of her setting...
Pastor
Manders, who goes through a harrowing learning process
during the course of an event-filled day, is played with extreme
unction, cleverly maintained by Roger Sansom. |
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A handsome, promising portrayal of Osvald is
given by recent Webber Douglas graduate Richard
Galazka, whose tender scene with his mother is here redolent
of both Hamlet and Coward's
drug-bttered hero in The Vortex,
bringing the play to its quietly tragic conclusion as he descends
from sickness into a coma and perhaps premature death. But
there is also an unmissable cameo from Terry
Ashe, a beautifully detailed compedy performance as the
dubious carpenter Engstrand, first
in a strongly focused opening encounter with Samantha
Dew as his handsome stepdaughter Regine,
then running satirical rings round the susceptible Pastor as
he gets his wicked way with the unsuspecting prelate. |
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