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"Ghosts" at Studio Arena

The spine of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts is easy to articulate, as the compact drama leaps forward with each new revelation. Of course, it can be difficult to realize that a revelation has occurred, as the evasiveness in Ibsen’s repressed world requires that shocking details are disclosed very discretely. Director Kent Paul has, for the most part, drawn a clear line for us to follow within the limitations of casting and rehearsal time in the current Studio Arena production, using a version of the text written by Robert Vivian.

Living in a rural Norwegian town in 1881, Mrs. Alving, the leading character, has learned to navigate an unspeakably repressive world. She has been so successful that no one even suspects the secrets she harbors. And these secrets are substantial, indeed.

To begin, her husband, the late Captain Alving, was not the stalwart pillar of the community that everyone seems to think he was. He was a broken man, a debauched alcoholic and libertine who fathered an illegitimate child with his wife’s maid, contributed nothing to the operation of their estate, and who died of syphilis at a young age. To protect her only child, Oswald, from his father’s influence, Mrs. Alving sent the boy to be raised abroad at the age of seven.

Actress Cynthia Mace embodies Mrs. Alving with impressive authority and control. In her performance she clearly delineates the path that her character has walked and the goals she has set for her future. As Mrs. Alving’s ability to hold on to her world begins to slip away, Ms. Mace grabs on tighter and tighter, only giving over to an unbridled outburst of emotion in the final moments when she realizes that all is lost. The performance is a model of restraint, followed by an artful progression to an emotional climax.

Mrs. Alving will realize, over the course of this one fateful evening, that all of the sacrifices she has made in the name of duty have been for naught. She cannot escape the ghosts of the past, or the ghosts of obsolete social attitudes either. Her son has inherited syphilis from his father and is dying. Further, the young man announces that he wants to marry Regina, his mother’s maid, obliging Mrs. Alving to reveal that the girl is actually his half-sister. Finally, the concessions that Mrs. Alving has made to her advisor, Pastor Manders, in the name of duty and propriety, turn out to be entirely misguided.

Plays like Ghosts were written at a time when acting companies, often under the direction of actor-managers, were inventing ensemble playing. It can be difficult to assemble a successful regional production in a short rehearsal time using actors who have not worked together often before. The performances supporting Ms. Mace are not entirely even, though Philip Goodwin is particularly strong as Pastor Manders. As a man who represents the repressive attitudes of society at large, but who is conflicted by a desire for power and his repressed sexual drives, Goodwin takes his character into boldly comic territory and into the throws of tragedy as well.

Each of the characters assembled around Mrs. Alving has a distinct agenda and relationship to her. As the play begins, Oswald, now a grown man, has returned home to unburden himself of a horrible secret. Mark Thornton’s performance in the role, tentative at first, gains strength and clarity as the evening progresses.

Aimée Phelan-Deconinck’s performance as Regina, the maid, seems to be several characters pieced together. Phelan-Deconinck has the gift of clear diction and fine technique, but she never quite delineates a consistent through-line for this woman. She masters the manipulative artifice, but never quite the genuine desire of the character to advance herself from her dead-end social situation.

John FitzGibbon gives an appealing comic performance as Regina’s father, Jacob Engstrand, who hopes, somehow, to get the Alving fortune to set him up in business, and to lure his daughter in to help run it.

This is a visually beautiful production, with a lavishly realistic set designed by Jeffrey D. Schneider, meticulous period costumes by Ann R. Emo, evocatively lit by Phil Monat. The play, which was a historical landmark in the beginning of Modern realism, no longer plays quite realistically. With its heavily over-determined plot and use of symbolism, it might have benefited from a fresher, bolder interpretation. In any event, to see a great classic play given a strong production on the Studio Arena stage is a treat, indeed.