Ghosts

Almeida Theatre, London, September 26 - November November 23, 2013

Trafalgar Studio 1, London, December 17, 2013 - extended to March 22, 2014

Editor's Note: This production runs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, April 5 - May 3, 2015.

Little wonder that Richard Eyre's production of Ghosts transferred after a virtually sold-out run at London's Almeida theatre to an open engagement in the West End in December. Rarely in recent years has a classic revival in London opened to such unanimous and unqualified praise from the leading critics. Michael Billington in The Guardian called it a "first-rate revival" that "grabs you by the throat and never releases its grip," while Tim Walker in The Telegraph went further still, calling the production "by far and away the best work he had ever seen" at the Almeida, which has a far from unimpressive production history. His review concluded "theatre seldom, if ever, comes great than this."

My own reaction was distinctly less hyperbolic, although this is unquestionably a powerful and in some spots memorable rendering of this major classic. Eyre, following what has become common practice on the continent, especially in Germany, presents the production in an intermissionless 90 minutes, with only short blackouts to indicate the act breaks, and although this does keep the audience on their toes to follow the action, it also emphasizes the crushing inexorability and forward drive of the action, unequalled by anybody since the Greeks.

Unquestionably, much of the power of this production comes from the memorable performance of Lesley Manville as Mrs. Alving. Manville, who has been a leading actress on the British stage, film, and television for some three decades now, is at the peak of her power as the tortured Mrs. Alving, stoutly standing against the calamity...