As awful as things can seem at times, it’s occasionally refreshing to see how far we’ve come as a society. When it was originally presented in the late 19th century, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts was scandalous. The story concerns a woman who builds an orphanage to deplete the wealth of her late husband so that her son may not inherit the family fortune. The family drama which harshly criticized religion covered topics as diverse as infidelity, sexually transmitted disease, incest and euthanasia. One simply didn’t discuss this sort of thing in public back then and one certainly did NOT address these topics in staged drama. The London Daily Telegraph used words like “loathsome,” “abominable,” and even “crapulous,” to describe the play.
Critical opinion of Ibsen’s drama has evolved over the years. Ghosts is now considered to be a drama of immense importance. The classic drama gets a local staging this month as Windfall Theatre presents a staging of it Sep. 25 - Oct. 10 at Village Church Arts on 130 East Juneau Ave. Maureen Kilmurry directs an impressive cast at the intimate venue. The ensemble includes Ben George, Samantha Martinson, Joe Pucchetti and Carol Zippel. For more information, visit Windfall online.
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