By Henrik Ibsen
A new version by Lucinda Coxon
From a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Set designer Anna Fleischle
The Bridge Theatre, London
Thursday 13 October 2022, 19.30
CAST
Simon Russell Beale- John Gabriel Borkman
Sebastian De Souza – Erhart Borkman
Clare Higgins – Gunhild Borkman
Daisy Ou- Frida Foldal
Michael Simkins – Willhelm Foldal
Ony Uhiaria – Fanny Wilton
Lia Williams – Ella Rentheim
In keeping with major productions, they list five full-time understudies.
The attraction of this for us was ‘directed by Nicholas Hytner’ even more than Simon Russell-Beale in the lead role. Hytner’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge could be our favourite production of the last decade, and we saw it twice.
Given the theme of a disgraced banker / entrepreneur it seems a deliberate reprise of the acclaimed Hynter directed / Russell-Beale name role production of Timon of Athens back at the National Theatre in 2011. I wish I hadn’t read the mixed reviews (4 star to 2 star), as some are depressing when you’re travelling a long way, and staying overnight to see it. On the other hand, we’ve liked virtually everything Nicholas Hytner has done at The Bridge, so we’re positive as we go in.
Ibsen was showing definite lack of creativity in his titles … Hedda Gabler, Olaf Liljekrans, Peer Gynt, John Gabriel Borkman, Catiline, Norma. This was his penultimate play, in 1896.
The Bridge theatre can be formatted in a number of ways. This was a thrust stage, in Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford dimensions. I thought the only difference from the RSC was no diagonal entrances to the front through the audience, and just as I was thinking it, Michael Simkins did a diagonal entrance to the front through the audience.
It’s set not in the 1890s, but now. The set is the Borkman house, ground floor, then changing to upper floor, back to ground floor, then to outside then disappearing altogether courtesy of a brilliant lighting plot. The point is that since his release from prison eight years earlier, Borkman has hardly ever left the upper floor, his wife has never left the ground floor.
The house is brutalist concrete, which made me think that Hytner could not have done it in his National Theatre days, because the audience wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the stage set, and the rest of the National Theatre building. Brutalist concrete is brutalist concrete.
The story? There isn’t a lot. Borkman (Simon Russell-Beale) was a miner’s son who became a banker, lost everyone’s money and did a five year prison sentence for fraud. He was released eight years earlier. Gunhild, (Clare Higgins) his wife, won’t speak to him, his only visitor is his old accountant, Wilhelm (Michael Simkins).
The play begins with Ella (Lia Williams), Gunhild’s sister, arriving after eight years apart. The house was put in her name to save it, so she owns it. Gunhild and Ella are fighting over Gunhild and John’s son, Erhard (Sebastian De Souza)m who was fostered by Ella when the scandal over fraud originally broke.
Erhard in turn is running around with Fanny Wilton, (Ony Uhiaria) an older, experienced rich woman. Their protégée is Frieda, Wilhelm’s daughter. It turns out that John was originally attached romantically with Ella, who loved him, but he deserted her to further his banking career, because a major financier wanted her. Borkman wanted his favour, and so had ended up marrying her sister, Gunhild. Ella is very Ill.
It purports to be a tragedy, in which case Ella Rentheim should be the title role. Borkman shows no guilt for trashing the savings of thousands of people, only self-pity. He is a narcissist and it’s what happened to him, his wealth and status that matters. He has disparaging lines about women in general, which drew the few laughs of the evening.
‘Believe me when push comes to shove, women are fundamentally interchangeable.’
Borkman
The trouble with it is that Simon Russell-Beale not only dominates any stage he’s on, but has nearly all the decent lines, Michael Simkins has the rest as Wilhelm. Wilhelm has written a long tragic novel that Borkman disparages in the funniest scene.
The big dramatic scenes are Borkman and Ella agonizing about the past. And Borkman dying. This is not a plot spoiler. It’s Ibsen. Obviously he dies at the end.
The play was taken without an interval, at one hour 45 minutes. It was not actually too long, but it did get really boring in several places, namely most of the first act before we even see Borkman. There should be resonances with narcissistic political leaders (blonde narcissistic leaders), disgraced bankers, hedge fund managers, cabinet ministers with their millions in the Cayman Islands, chancellors who made millions out of Brexit, the nonsense of trickle down economics, but it fails to make sufficient contemporary connections, A freer adaptation might have succeeded. Instead we get that Borkman is a heartless narcissist and we focus on broken love.
A major issue is the text. I wouldn’t blame the adaptation as much as Henry Gibson, I mean Henrik Ibsen, (sorry, I loved Laugh-In) because all you can do us translate what is there and there are some truly dire lines, lines that would be below standard in a Mills & Boone romance. The dialogue is uniformly stilted and cliche; see also ‘When push comes to shove …’ above.
- We’ve reached the end of our road.
- I see the cat’s out of the bag.
- I’ve come to defend you against this devil!
- I cannot stand the loneliness! The emptiness!
- How can I be redeemed by your sacrifice?
- You have shattered what hope I had left.
- Your love is much stronger than mine.
- I want happiness. To live! Live! Live!
- Where are you going? Into the storm of life.
- It was an icy, iron hand that clasped his heart.
OVERALL
I liked the set and superb lighting, but definitely not the irritating sound design, there were far too many grumbling, wind whistling and buzzing noises running in the background.It was a privilege as ever to watch Simon Russell-Beale at full power. He is an extraordinary presence. Karen thought him worth an extra star alone.
Lia Williams gave a memorable and moving performance in spite of having lines I could not have said easily. Michael Simkins was a welcome breath of humour in both scenes he was in. However, it’s intrinsically a play that runs into Ibsen parody especially with the inevitable long death scene. There’s an awful lot of great talent in acting, production, design, chasing a thin story. Reviews have mentioned that it seems to be a coda, or an act 4 or 5 of a tragedy that we missed the start of. I didn’t find the story remotely engaging. Just two stars for me.
**
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
four stars
Neil Norman, Daily Express ****
Sarah Crompton ****
John Nathan, Metro ****
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ****
three stars
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian ***
At one hour and 45 minutes, played straight through, it feels longer than that in the best possible sense – solid, meaty, without the typically hurtling speed of a play of its duration. While it comes with plotlines and intertwined fates in whose turns we do not always believe enough, it is absolutely worth seeing for its ideas, intensity and showmanship. This is ultimately a production which reminds us of the exciting potential for theatre to turn the old inside out, and make new, if it dares to.
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian 30 September 2022
Susannah Clapp, The Observer ***
Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail ***
Demetrios Matheou, The ArtsDesk ***
Sam Marlowe, The Stage ***
two stars
Clive Davis, The Times **
Nick Curtis, Evening Standard **
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
PLAYS BY IBSEN
Hedda Tesman, Chichester, 2019 (new version of Hedda Gabler)
Peter Gynt (adapted from Ibsen by David Hare), National Theatre 2018
Hedda Gabler, Salisbury Playhouse, 2016
An Enemy of The People, Chichester 2016
DIRECTED BY NICHOLAS HYTNER
The Southbury Child, by Stephen Beresford, Chichester 2022
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bridge Theatre, 2019
Young Marx, by Richard Bean & Clive Coleman, Bridge Theatre 2017
Othello, National Theatre, 2013
Timon of Athens, National Theatre, 2012
Hamlet, National Theatre, 2010
People, by Alan Bennett, National Theatre on tour 2013
SIMON RUSSELL-BEALE
The Tempest, RSC 2016 (Prospero)
King Lear, National Theatre, 2014 (Lear)
The Hot House, by Harold Pinter, Trafalgar Studios, 2013
Privates on Parade, by Peter Nichols, Michael Grandage Season, 2012
Timon of Athens, National Theatre, 2012 (Timon)
MICHAEL SIMKINS
The Unfriend by Steven Moffat, Chichester Minerva, 2022
Greed (film) 2019
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich, by Mary Pix, RSC 2018 (Mr Rich)
Fracked! Chichester Minerva 2016
Hay Fever, Bath, 2014
CLARE HIGGINS
Hamlet, National Theatre, 2010 (Gertrude)
Peter Viney's Blog 
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