Theater Review: Ghosts

by Mark Lowry

Henrik Ibsen is the father of modern drama, and the legacy of a play like Ghosts — in which long-kept secrets damage family relationships for generations — can be seen in others’ work for more than a century later.

You could zigzag a line from the Norwegian writer to playwrights Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller and Tracey Letts and to TV shows like Six Feet Under and, on a more melodramatic level, Brothers and Sisters and Dirty Sexy Money. (Not surprisingly, these shows boast writers with theatrical pedigrees, including Alan Ball, Jon Robin Baitz and Craig Wright.)

Lanford Wilson is another playwright who has dabbled in the effects of secrets and lies, which is just one reason he seems like a prime candidate for a translation of Ghosts. His version of the play makes its area premiere in a rigid, respectable production by WingSpan Theatre Company, directed by acclaimed local actress Sally Vahle.

Ghosts shines a light on a day in which matriarch Helen Alving (played by WingSpan co-founder Susan Sargeant) admits the sins of her late husband, Captain Alving, to Reverend Manders (Bill Jenkins). Manders oversees an orphanage Helen built with money from the Captain, whose philandering actions led to a debilitating case of syphilis for her artist son Oswald (Mike Schraeder, in the production’s sharpest performance), who is in love with the family’s maid Regina (Hilary Couch), although she’s really Oswald’s half-sister. Regina has been told that handyman Jakhob (H. Francis Fuselier) is her father all these years.

These themes might not raise eyebrows today, but in the late 19th century Ghosts caused quite a stir for its condemnation of Victorian moralizing and the very mention of such topics as venereal disease and free love. Wilson’s translation thankfully doesn’t mess with the original much, maintaining Ibsen’s rhythm but with slight contemporary updates, such as when Manders begins a speech with “It’s like this …”

It’s a slow and dreary (read: tough to sit through) drama, and the pacing in this production is slower than it should be — molasses that needs just a minute in the microwave. The scenes between Helen and Manders, especially, seem endless. The bigger problem is that most of the actors ratchet up the melodrama just a pitch, enough to detract from the realism. Sargeant, who has given many insightful characterizations in the past, offers a believable enough Helen, although one wishes for more colors in her portrait.

It doesn’t help that her makeup, meant to reflect a wearied woman in a cold climate, has the unpleasant effect of making her look sicklier than her son. The rest of the show, however, looks fantastic. Clare Floyd DeVries’ detailed set and Barbara Cox’s costumes nicely put us in the right time and place.

This is a good, solid Ghosts, recommended for anyone taking a theater history class. But when reviving a drama of this magnitude, good isn’t always enough.

Ghosts runs through October 25 and tickets can be reserved by calling 214-675-6573 or emailing wingspan@wingspantheatre.com. Pay-what-you-can performance on Thursday, October 16 with two post-show talkbacks on Friday, October 17th and Friday, October 24th.

Mark Lowry is a freelance writer based in Dallas who covered the North Texas theater scene for 10 years at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.