GHOSTS by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Nicki Bloom

This one act, one-and-a-half set modernisation of the period scandal is an interesting choice for us Adelaide free-thinkers: the parts of this piece that would have been shocking to the Victorians (the period, not the state) seemed familiar, yet the religious extremism that would have been acceptable to the conservative 19th century theatregoer is now what surprises us in 2008. Yet for me, it was Christopher Pitman’s deliberately stilted performance of the emotionally repressed Pastor Manders that doesn’t quite work. His archaic modus operandii and opinions are just too distant from reality – and only just short of being parody – so it is left to the superbly simple Jakob, played with such conviction by Brendan Rock, that gives us more to relate to. Alice Darling smoulders naively as the precocious daughter Regina, yet disappoints when she is given more emotion to play with – her emphatic exit is designed only to shock us, but we are already numbed by other, more potently delivered emotion from the family. Heather Mitchell holds this together as Helene Alving tumbling from composure to utter despair, but it is Nathan O’Keefe who delights us in his permanently half-dressed haze through which Oswald is slowly revealed (metaphorically and literally...). He holds the audience’s attention from his first teasing entry to his outpouring of pain, both physical and from his conscience. The set design is grand glass and metal, yet not entirely fitting for the auditorium shape, which left half of us unable to see a silent scene behind the main lounge set. I say silent because there is no dialogue, unfortunately there is a cacophony of industrial randomness from DJ Tr!p which stands out clearly as the worst segment of his otherwise complementary soundscape. Mark Pennington’s lighting design is simply superb, flooding the stage for the action then shrinking it to provide the intimacy for mother and son; illuminating the way to the outside world and filling the dying scenes with a sweep of sunlight. It is all mashed together to form a piece that is sometimes pleasing, sometimes jarring – but always challenging – and whilst the updating of this story’s themes may be clumsy at times, it still has life.