One critic declared “Ninety-seven per cent of the people who go see Ghosts are nasty-minded people who find the discussion of nasty subjects to their taste in exact proportion to their nastiness.” Another called it “gross, almost putrid indecorum,” and another, “crapulous.” The story concerns Mrs. Twelve years later, it was publically performed for the first time in London, and the critical establishment’s freak-out became the stuff of theatre legend. As was common at the time, it was published before ever being performed, in 1881, and debuted in a Danish-language production in Chicago the following May. Some context: Ghosts was Ibsen’s third prose play. Alving) and Catherine Lavoie (Regina Engstrand).

However, the mostly humorous touches he adds completely transform the work from what was once a naturalistic play struggling to break free from the conventions of melodrama into a mildly absurdist and much more engaging play which cuts past the shock-value of incest, euthanasia, and venereal disease, to the core issue of what it means to control one’s own destiny. Allen hasn’t changed any major plot points, or even most of the dialogue. Alving has several collections of the nineteenth century Norwegian playwright’s works piled up on her desk.

The Neo-Futurists founder previously staged The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen in 2005, and in his new, highly self-referential adaptation of Ghosts, main character Mrs. Produced by Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company At Angel Island, Chicago Ibsen’s Loving Parodists Salute Him An Original Adaptation of the Play by Henrik Ibsen

Ghosts by henrik ibsen full play