Rosmersholm at The Duke of York's Theatre

Ibsen’s least performed play is currently running at the Duke Of York’s Theatre and is an example of how a depressing plot doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.  Thanks to Ibsen’s superlative writing, Duncan Macmillan’s lucid adaptation and the fact that the excellent director, Ian Rickson has such an accomplished cast, what could be dour is in fact massively entertaining.  There is humour amongst the angst and I for one was totally enthralled by everything happening on stage.

The plot centres around pastor John Rosmer (Tom Burke) who lives in the Rosmer family’s stately home, Rosmersholm (the title of the play).  Alongside him, his housekeeper, Mrs. Helseth (Lucy Briers) and several staff, lives Rebecca West (Hayley Atwell).  Rebecca is the companion of Rosmer’s late wife, Beata, who committed suicide by drowning a year before the play opens.  It is obvious to all that Rosmer and Rebecca love each other, but both of them deny any romantic affiliation.  The person most concerned about the nature of their relationship is Rosmer’s brother-in-law, Kroll (Giles Terera).  A rigid and extremely judgemental conservative, he believes that his late sister’s husband’s loss of faith and political allegiance with the newly elected liberal  government can be laid at the feet of this radical and “liberated woman”.  He is enraged at Rosmer’s choice to betray the family’s ruling-class roots.

Hayley Atwell has never been better as the free-spirited Rebecca, intent on liberating the ghostly and oppressive Rosmersholm.  In fact the play starts with her opening up the large down stage window in order to let the light into the drawing room enveloped in gloom.  Her Rebecca is passionate about her beliefs but doesn’t come across as manipulative.  She is fragile but sensuous, impulsive and frustrated and when needed can hold back with her views.  This is brought to comic effect during dinner when her extremely malleable face makes clear that she’s itching to make her comments known.  What’s clever about her performance is that we sense the danger should she fail to keep her own counsel.

Tom Burke makes for an excellent guilt-ridden Rosmer.  At times it may seem as if he’s being overshadowed by Atwell, but I feel this is intentional.  His crisis of faith is palpable; a lost soul who is burdened with guilt at the circumstances of his wife’s death and the fact that he is besotted with her best friend.

Giles Terera is a really engaging Kroll.  He is compelling as the authoritative and somewhat aggressive local governor.  Such an accomplished actor, who is as much at home with Ibsen as he is “doing his thing” in Hamilton and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.  Peter Wight, too (does he ever give a mediocre performance?) as Brendel, Rosmer’s old tutor, helps to enliven the proceedings

Rae Smith’s design and Neil Austin’s lighting are magnificent.  The flaking paintwork and the shrouded ancestral portraits on the walls, all bathed in gloom at the beginning, capture the faded grandeur of a once grand house.  Then, once the paintings are uncovered and the dustsheets removed, the lighting changes to convey a room bathed in sunlight. Rosmersholm has once more come alive.

This play may have been written in 1886 but its theme of how people can be destroyed by political or social systems is still relevant, especially today.  And what delicious parts Ibsen writes for women; a truly feminist playwright?