(Pic: Derek de Froberville, Tshepiso Mabulana and Siphesihle Shangase)The Drama and Performance Studies Programme of the University of KwaZulu-Natal will present Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts for a short run from October 6.
“And so here we have a production of Ibsen’s Ghosts set ‘possibly’ in the claustrophobic semi-urban society of somewhere like Stanger,” says director Dr Christopher John. “Where a beloved and successful son of a wealthy Indian mother is suffering from an incurable sexually-transmitted disease. This expressionist production of the play raises certain questions. Will the interpretation of the play hold? Can we find a way in which the play might resonate for a contemporary audience in KwaZulu-Natal?
“While discussing drama and the African world-view,” he continues, “Wole Soyinka recalls how in the 1960s certain London theatre critics felt that since syphilis was no longer an incurable disease, Ibsen’s Ghosts had lost its tragic rationale. Soyinka contrasts this with an explanation of how - from an African perspective - tragedy can transcend the cause of individual disjunction, such as disease or impotency, and can recognize these as a reflection of a far greater disharmony in the communal psyche.
“Since the late 19th century, realism has retained a firm hold on productions of Ibsen’s prose plays. And yet a desire to challenge the naturalistic manner of staging these plays led some anti-naturalistic theatre innovators, during the early twentieth century, to explore a more acutely defined conceptual approach to staging and to engage goals of simplification, stylization, and suggestion.”
The press material continues: “Edward Gordon Graig in his programme note for Eleonora Duse’s version of Rosmersholm in 1905 wrote: “Ibsen’s marked detestation for Realism is nowhere more apparent than in the two plays Rosmersholm and Ghosts, … the words are the words of actuality, but the drift of the words, something beyond this. There is the powerful impression of unseen forces closing in upon the place: we hear continually the long drawn-out note of the horn of death.
“Frederick and Lise-Lone Marker describe how the Munch-Reinhardt collaboration, later in the century, opened audiences’ eyes to a ‘new’ Ibsen with a simplified living-room that stressed certain specific visual motifs, intended to heighten and deepen the dominant mood of the production. They explain how this endowed the inner spirit of the play with life and visible form, rather than attempting to recreate external ‘reality’ on the stage.”
Christopher John maintains that the questions he raised earlier, asking if this production of Ghosts can find some resonance with the life experiences of a South African audience “can only be answered when we all meet together at a performance, the audience, Jason Barber’s design, the actors and their work, Rogers Ganesen’s lighting, my direction, and Henrik Ibsen’s extraordinary play.”
Ghosts runs at the Square Space Theatre from October 6 to 9 at 19h00 in the Square Space Theatre, Howard College Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal. More information from Claudette Wagner on 031 260 3133, fax 031 260 1410 or email – wagnerc1@ukzn.ac.za
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