This Is London 16 May 2019

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22 Photos: Johan Persson. Hayley Atwell, Tom Burke, Peter Wight and Giles Terera in Rosmersholm. ROSMERSHOLM Duke of York’s Theatre It’s hard to say why we have never seen this searing drama before. Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, often referred to as the ‘father of realism’ and perhaps better known for ‘A Doll’s House’, ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Wild Duck’, wrote ‘Rosmersholm’ in 1886 as a response to the anger and repression he found in his own country. Now, in an era of political turmoil in Europe, the play has truly found its moment. Of course the political is also deeply personal. In Ian Rickson’s production, we find ourselves in a grand house with tall windows overlooking a lake. Something terrible has happened there – the pastor’s wife drowned the year before and her room is all shut up, dusty and dark with decay and grief. Still, it’s time to move on according to Rebecca, the dead woman’s former companion who has stayed on in an unorthodox domestic arrangement with the griefstricken pastor. Down come the dust sheets, out come the fresh flowers at Rebecca’s insistence. Hayley Atwell plays Rebecca as a powerhouse of enthusiasm, all bouncing curls and passionate speeches. Tom Burke as Rosmer, the last scion of an illustrious family whose stern portraits decorate the walls, is subdued and anxious by comparison. The tension between these two is marvellous for it is not merely sexual. Rosmer is Hayley Atwell and Tom Burke in Rosmersholm. undergoing a battle for his own soul. He has lost his faith and given up preaching – perhaps Rebecca will succeed in persuading him to back the Radicals in an upcoming election, because he desperately wants a new world, just as she does. Yet on the other side, tugging urgently at his sleeve, striding about importantly in tailcoat and polished boots, is his old friend Governor Kroll, constantly reminding him of his elevated status, duty and tradition. What is the answer? No character in this play is a mere cipher for a political stance. The complexity of their thoughts and feelings is brilliantly rendered in the text and we follow them this way and that, like shoals of fish darting about as one. The servants in the play say little, but their faces mirror the hope and dismay of their masters as the townspeople outside press for change. In addition to Kroll – played by Giles Terera less with unlikeable pomp than with an earnest belief in his own conservative values – there is also Brendel, Rosmer’s old tutor, who arrives threadbare from prison with tattered leaflets publicising the speech he will make to change the world. There is Mortensgaard, Editor of a radical newspaper bent on undermining the social order. Yet both these two turn out to be fatally flawed, their plans for change scuppered despite Rosmer’s attempts to help. What will Rosmer do? In the end he has the power of the status quo, but he strikes us as weak. As so often in Ibsen’s drama, the women know best – even though that knowledge is laced with the bitter taste of self-sacrifice. The flood waters rise again on the stage and we wonder, what will become of us all? Sue Webster t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e
WINNER! 4 OLIVIER AWARDS INCLUDING BEST NEW MUSICAL The Times | Mail on Sunday | Time Out | Daily Express | THE Mirror | sunday express | the stage ‘ THIS MUSICAL GETS EVERYTHING RIGHT. ’ THE TIMES THE NEW MUSICAL BASED ON A REMARKABLE TRUE STORY PLAYING AT THE PHOENIX THEATRE TICKETS ON SALE AT COMEFROMAWAY.CO.UK
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This Is London 16 May 2019

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