Richard Eyre's version of Ibsen's Ghosts is a fresh and vivid depiction of a woman who yearns for emotional and sexual freedom, but who is too timid to achieve it.
Helene Alving has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father.
But on his return from his life as a painter in France, Oswald reveals how he has already inherited the legacy of Alving's dissolute life.
Richard Eyre's version of Ghosts was first staged at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2013.
This edition contains an introduction to the play by Richard Eyre.
'Raw and unsparing, but also devastatingly true to the spirit of the original... theatre seldom, if ever, comes greater than this'
- Sunday Telegraph
'Both humorous and deeply affecting... the most lucid and affecting version of the play I have ever seen'
- Time Out
'Richard Eyre's new stripped-down 90-minute version has glories too many to list'
- The Times
'Held me in its grip throughout... leaves one reeling'
- Telegraph
'Glittering, dark... as fresh and unsettling as ever'
- Financial Times
'Grabs you by the throat and never releases its grip... extraordinary'
- Guardian
'Scaldingly intense... the inexorable build-up of tension is beautifully calibrated'
- The Arts Desk
