The Stage

Rosmersholm

Published Wednesday 28 May 2008 at 12:40 by Gerald Berkowitz

Ibsen’s infrequently revived 1886 drama proves, in a fluid adaptation by Mike Poulton and an intense production by Anthony Page, to be an engrossing and surprisingly passionate dissection of sex, politics and sexual politics.

A politically naive pastor hopes to mediate between warring radical and reactionary parties in his community but is rejected by both. Their attacks on him turn personal and question the nature of his relationship with the young woman who inspired him. Accusations lead to revelations, and the man who has lost his faith but not his capacity for guilt finds himself pushed toward tragedy.

As is common in Ibsen, the play inches forward by repeatedly re-examining the past, but it is kept from any hint of static talkiness by this production’s solid sense of reality and the awareness of how very much everything matters to everyone. Paul Hilton plays Rosmer with the youthfulness of the enthusiast, excited by the prospect of doing good and even by the discovery that he might have been in love without knowing it, until the complexities of both the world around him and his own emotions paralyse him. Helen McCrory skilfully keeps the woman hidden, letting us only gradually sense a mask, and then the slipping of the mask, before we discover the reality. Malcolm Sinclair is impressive as a charming patrician not only willing but frighteningly eager to show his fangs when crossed.