Segunda Version de la Vida Es Sueno', de Calderon, Vol. 19 Book

Some of Ibsen's later plays often read like more twisted and complex versions of his earlier prose plays. Hence John Gabriel Borkman reads like The Pillars of Society, and Hedda Gabler offers another take on A Doll's House.

In the case of Rosmersholm, we have a loose reinterpretation of Ghosts. The plot and characters are radically different, but the theme is the same - progressive characters struggling and failing to overcome the ghosts of the past, both their own history and the outdated values of the present age. Indeed, there is even a real ghost in this story, a white horse that appears before the death of a member of the Rosmer family.

John Rosmer, the hero, represents another familiar Ibsen hero. If The Wild Duck offered us a debased version of Brand and Peer Gynt in its heroes, then Rosmersholm has transposed the familiar vacillating Ibsen political hero into a more ordinary setting. Rosmer may not be fighting to lead the state, like Catiline, Skule or Julian, but he similarly agonises about his choices, moving from one opposite to the other.

Set on one side is the past. Rosmer belongs to the traditional aristocratic family whose thinking has dominated the area he lives in, and his house is lined with their portraits. It is a grim, conservative view of life and Rosmer has never learnt to laugh. He is also tormented by guilt about his own past, blaming himself for the suicide of his wife.

Set against that is the promise of the new, progressive ideas that were sweeping through Norway at the time. These are encapsulated in the figure of Rebecca West, his dead wife's nurse with whom Rosmer is beginning to have a relationship.

In spite of the opposition of conservative forces, represented by Rosmer's brother-in-law, Kroll, Rosmer and Rebecca try to move towards those liberating new ideals, but the past proves too much for them. Rebecca refuses John's offer of marriage and reveals her own guilt in having persuaded his wife to commit suicide to make room for her. She may also have had an affair with a man who was probably her own father.

The play therefore ends in defeat for their ideals, but a triumphant statement of their feeling for one another when they agree to a suicide pact, throwing themselves off the same bridge that John's wife did. The gesture reinforces the sense of their past killing them.

If one wanted to be obtuse, one could argue that the play's outcomes appear to back the views of Kroll, the disapproving conservative. After all, the new liberated ideals lead only to murder, incest and suicide. Even the other progressive characters hardly ennoble their cause. Ulrik Brendel is a wastrel and a dreamer, who realises that his ideas are out of date when he sees that the same ambitions can be worked towards by Peter Mortensgaard, but without the need for any scruples or principles.

However, Ibsen seems to lean towards the progressive side in spite of this. For one thing, the play centres on John and Rebecca, and they are his most appealing heroes. This is all the more surprising since one is infirm in his principles and the other one is a siren who lures a woman to her death. Nonetheless we care about them.

By contrast, the conservative forces are represented negatively by Kroll. Kroll is not in fact a monster, and he has clearly shown kindness in the past to both John and Rebecca. However, his defence of rigid conservative values has set him against his own family, and he has no scruples about allowing John's character to be slandered by his followers. His ideals have corrupted his decent standards.

Rosmersholm may not have many new ideas, but it is another fine, richly-complex work, showing a writer at the height of his strength and confidence.

Description: Rebekka West, the visionary, passionate heroine of 'Rosmersholm' inspired the English novelist to adopt that name. Ibsen's most complex play sees a society in turmoil through the lens of pastor John Rosmer and Rebekka, his social-revolutionary companion. Rosmer is recovering from the suicide of his unstable wife, Beata. Now Rebekka, replacing her in his affections, urges him to surrender his privileged place in conservative Norwegian society. A local elite plot to make him hold to the status quo. Can Rebekka prevail? Translated by Frank McGuinness and featuring music by Norwegian composer Marius Munthe-Kaas.

Music composed and arranged by Marius Munthe-Kaas
Music supervisor, Giles Perring
Gro Hole Austgulen (violin), Elin Kleppa Michalsen (violin), Anna Cecilia Johansson (viola), Olav Stener Olsen (cello)

Translated by Frank McGuinness

'Rosmersholm' premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 1987.

***************************************************

Frank McGuinness's translation, unperformed since 1985, is a superb rendition of the Norwegian into fluent, everyday English, whilst keeping the poetic flavour of the original.

Ibsen's almost experimental play delves into areas of political upheaval and sexual mores that were ground-breaking to Norwegian audiences in 1886. Rosmer's wife's (apparently) inexplicable suicide has helped seal the lapsed pastor's affection for Rebekka - and her revolutionary worldview also. This is a play of ideas. And of surprises: Rosmer's almost asexual celebacy, the visionary Brendel's blood-lust, the ideologue Mortensgaard's crude opportunism. And that's not to mention the many-stepped discoveries we'll make about Rebekka, another truly three-dimensional proto-feminist figure from the hugely influential playwright.

This in-house production for Radio 3 features the work of a young composer little known in Britain, Marius Munthe-Kaas, and fellow-Norwegian chamber musicians.

Replacing the action of the earlier plays, the plot twists and turns here are based on dramatic revelations made about Rebekka and all the characters. The drama, set on a promontory surrounded on all sides by the weir in which Mrs Rosmer died, develops on new realisations and moral shadings that, kaleidoscope-like, throw each of the dramatis personae into new relief with each new scene. There are no easy moral judgements to be made about any of us, Ibsen seems to be saying; although finally his disapproval does seem to be aimed at the corrupt, self-serving elite who offer little chance of escape to our lovers.


John Rosmer Nicholas Farrell
Rebekka West Helen Baxendale
Professor Kroll Ronald Pickup
Ulrik Brendel Karl Johnson
Peder Mortensgaard Philip Jackson
Mrs Helseth Christine Absolom

Wiki's take on it: In the estimation of many critics the piece is Ibsen's masterwork, only equalled by The Wild Duck of 1884. As expressed by the protagonist, Rosmer, the theme of the play is social and political change, in which the traditional ruling classes relinquish their right to impose their ideals on the rest of society,[2] but the action is entirely personal, resting on the conduct of the immoral, or amoral, "free thinking" heroine, Rebecca, who sets herself to undermine Rosmer's religious and political beliefs because of his influential position in the community. Rebecca has abandoned not only Christianity but, unlike Rosmer, she has abandoned the whole ethical system of Christianity as well. Possibly she may be taken as Ibsen's answer to the question of whether or not Christian ethics can be expected to survive the death of the Christian religion.

4* John Gabriel Borkman
3.5* Rosmersholm
4* Peer Gynt
4* Hedda Gabler
4* Ghosts
3* A Doll's House
3* The Wild Duck
3* The Master Builder
2* Brand