Forum topic: Ghosts - a play about secrets and questioning of traditional values

From Sunday 19th until Saturday 25th January Incognito Theatre in Friern Barnet will be presenting Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen. Incognito's small but perfectly formed auditorium is the perfect place for this intense exposition of claustrophic small-town life.

The original performances of Ghosts created much controversy. The play pushed at existing boundaries with its sexual themes, including infidelity, prostitution and incest, and the questioning of traditional values.

The original title of the play is difficult to translate into English. Ghosts is certainly not a tale of the supernatural. What Ibsen means by ‘ghosts’ is what is passed on to us by generations that have gone before. One of the key themes of the play is the conflict between Mrs Alving and Pastor Manders, as she starts to question the role that is expected of her in conventional society.

Linda Shannon is a highly experienced director who has assembled an extremely talented cast. She comments: “We have made this classic play more accessible to a modern audience with a new adaptation specially written for Incognito that enables the actors to focus on natural ways of speaking. During rehearsals we have worked hard for each actor to understand what underlies the motivations of each character. This is a play about secrets. Each character has their own secrets and the drama unfolds as these secrets are gradually revealed.”