Bart DeLorenzo Helms Richard Eyre’s ‘Extraordinary’ Adaptation of Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’ At The Odyssey Theatre

Bart DeLorenzo Helms Richard Eyre’s ‘Extraordinary’ Adaptation of Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’ At The Odyssey Theatre
Pamela J. Gray as Helene Alving and Barry Del Sherman as Pastor Manders in "Ghosts." Photo by Cooper Bates

By Steve Simmons– posted at 3:20 p.m., Sept. 13, 2020

It’s the ultimate domestic drama. Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts ticks a lot of boxes in covering controversial topics—euthanasia, class, heredity, patriarchy and prostitution. Reviled and condemned by audiences and critics in its day for its attack on religion, defense of free love and mentions of incest and syphilis, the work is now considered a classic of the modern theatre.

The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble is taking up the searing work with the L.A. premiere of acclaimed British director Richard Eyre’s sleek adaptation, playing next weekend through Sunday, Oct. 23 at its West L.A. theater complex. (For details, see below.)

In Ghosts, a pillar of realistic theatre, widow Helene Alving is happy to be laying the spirit of her husband, a successful businessman who died 10 years earlier, to rest by opening an orphanage in his name with the help of Pastor Manders. But when her son Oswald, an artist who has returned from a long absence in Paris, takes an interest in the family maid Regina, daughter of local schemer Jacob Engstrand, Helene must confront her own ghosts. She’s determined the son will not “suffer the sins of the father” and follow in his footsteps, but it may be too late.

The first play Ibsen wrote after A Doll’s HouseGhosts is considered by many to be the story of what might have happened if Nora had stayed with her husband and sought her liberation from within the marriage. In Ghosts, Helene is haunted by the legacy of a lecherous, alcoholic husband she never loved and the consequences of her denial and deceit.

Bart DeLorenzo – Photo courtesy of
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

Following are excerpts from my interview with director Bart DeLorenzo on the challenges of taking on a classic.

Why is Ghosts such a classic?

I think it’s brilliantly constructed. It’s a series of revelations and debates on conventional morality that lead to an inexorable ending that’s breathtaking.

Everyone was arguing in his day about how awful it was. The most famous quote about it—”a dirty act done publicly.” In his time a lot of inconsequential farces were being done. He was the first to put political debate at the heart of a domestic tragedy. And all our best domestic dramas continue to do so. Think Arthur’s Miller’s All My Sons or Death of a Salesman.

No playwright merges the political and the personal like Ibsen does. By examining the issues of the day through the conflicts of a single family, he shows us how culture imposes its values on individuals and speaks through us, and how difficult change can be.

Ibsen had positive intentions – he said he had to write this play.

I think Ibsen believed art can change the world. I think he was still elated from the controversial reaction to A Doll’s House, and he thought, ‘I’ll do one better and bring the house down.’ His passion was white hot.

He was in a self-imposed exile in Rome and he went to Sorento to work on Ghosts. Staying at that hotel gave him a chance to reflect on Norwegian life and ask, ‘why are people living this way and not questioning the strictures of society?’ I think the play addresses the question of how to live and ‘are you living in a way that can bring you the most happiness?’

Alex Barlas as Oswald Alving and Viva Hassis Gentes as Regina Engstrand in Ghosts. Photo by Cooper Bates

Why is now the right time for Ghosts?

Reading the play again during the pandemic, I was struck by how fresh and immediate the issues of the play are. I think the pandemic has opened a lot of questions about how we live. I’ve grown up with the assumptions that you leave your family and drive to work every day even if you have nothing to do. You work for eight hours, come home and relax for a few hours before falling asleep.

So I think people are rethinking how to live—maybe spend time traveling and commute from time to time—for more happiness and better relationships.

And the dark side is that the pandemic coincided with the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter and questioning the hierarchies of society. This play is doing that. I didn’t choose it, but as soon as I read it, I knew this was exactly the moment for it.

Henrik Ibsen said:Every man shares the responsibility and the guilt of the society to which he belongs.’ How does that relate to this play?

I think he agrees with Mrs. Alving’s aspirations to improve herself—she’s been reading free-thinking, feminist literature since her husband died—and the community by doing something good in his name.

We need to rethink the ghosts of society that don’t work, ‘all kinds of old dead doctrines, opinions and beliefs.’ When the individual starts changing, society as a whole changes and this is a time of possibilities. Biden’s controversial canceling of student loans was a shocking action, but what are the ramifications? –Happiness sprinkled throughout society, a burden lifted and the possibility of buying a house or a car. Of course, I can say ‘I had to pay for my student loan, it isn’t fair.’ And yes, that’s true, but is fairness more important than happiness and the potential to reshape society. These are the kinds of questions the play asks and something for audiences to argue about on the car ride home.

J.Stephen Brantley as Jacob Engstrand and Viva Hassis Gentes as Regina Engstrand. Photo by Cooper Bates

Have you directed Ibsen before?

I directed an adaptation of Hedda Gabler (Speed-Hedda) at the Evidence Room Theater where I’m the founding artistic director. When The Odyssey called and asked if I wanted to direct Ghosts, I automatically said yes.

Why did you want to do this adaptation? What does Eyre’s version (from Ibsen’s original written in Norwegian and a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund) bring?

Eyre’s adaptation is as true to the original as it is to our time. I love the way he condenses it and makes it more immediate (performed in 90 minutes with no intermission). I looked at a lot of translations and read so many of them and what I found is that quite often they were translating from the less common language. Scholars have adapted the play, some great playwrights leaning on scholars and even actors like Eva Le Gallienne, who found fame as Mrs. Alving. Ibsen was a man of the theatre and more of a poet than a polemicist or prose writer. I love Eyre’s poetry and the snap of the lines. It lingers in the mind and imagination. He’s done an extraordinary job.

We have though changed some of the Britishisms. People here don’t say, ‘I shan’t.’

Would you like to direct the traditional Ibsen drama?

No. I’d like to do this again. Richard’s version is sexier and actually funny.

How has your cast—Pamela J. Gray as Helene Alving, Barry Del Sherman as Pastor Manders, Alex Barlas as Oswald Alving, Viva Hassis Gentes as Regina and J.Stephen Brantley as Jacob Engstrand—responded to the play?

I’ve worked with Pamela and Barry before. Alex and Viva are students at CalArts where I teach and first worked with them. I think that when the material is this strong, actors love it and feel like they’re well taken care of. I’m sure it helps that both Ibsen and Eyre are men of the theatre. Even with material this stark, I’ve found that this is a happy group of actors. They are as happy offstage as they are sorrowful on stage.

Pamela J. Gray as Helene Alving and Alex Barlas as Oswald Alving. Photo by Cooper Bates.

A lot of us see Ghosts as that dark play we had to read in high school or college.

Yes, the ending can seem like something out of Edgar Allen Poe. But in Richard’s adaptation the dialogue sounds like the way I hear people speaking and arguing today. I do see the play in a new light. It can be seen as a ‘love in the ruins’ story between Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders. Will they get back together or not? And Engstrom is a character right out of Dickens.

How does it feel to be doing this play now, in a theater?

We were in the middle of the pandemic and hadn’t had any theatre; we were watching Netflix, movies and TV. But sometimes we just love a good cry and the thing that live theatre can do is move you.

What I loved was this story and I love telling stories. And what’s so special in a play is that there are two stories. There’s the story the actors are presenting on stage and the other story is the audience. You sit down and notice people around you and ask ‘I wonder what they’re making of this? Are they laughing or distracted or pulled into it?’ And watching them watch the play is a story. If it’s a play that’s provoking our world that’s where the humanism of theatre lies. And the more provocative the better.

The Odyssey Theater is at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Performances are at 8 p.m. Saturdays and Mondays, and 4 p.m., Sundays through Oct. 23. Three additional 8 p.m., Friday performances will be Oct. 7, 14 and 21. Tickets to Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances range from $25–$40. Tickets to performances on Monday nights are Pay-What-You-Will (reservations open online and at the door starting at 5:30 p.m.).  Post-performance discussions with the artists are scheduled for Monday, Sept. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 9, and are included in the ticket price. Friday, Oct. 14 is “Wine Night” with complimentary refreshments after the show.  For more information, call 310-477-2055 ext. 2 or visit www.OdysseyTheatre.com.