Ghosts at the Lyric Hammersmith Review

The cast of Ghosts at the Lyric Hammersmith

Following the huge successes of both Iphigenia in Splott and Romeo and Julie, I was so excited to watch ‘Ghosts’ at the Lyric Hammersmith, the fifth collaboration between writer Gary Owen and director Rachel O’Riordan. However, I ended up leaving confused and underwhelmed.

Ghosts is a modern re-imagining of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s play. It follows the story of Helena (formally known as Helen) who is funding a new children’s hospital under the legacy (and money) of her late husband. Just before opening, her son Oz (formally, Oswald) returns home from his acting career and the family’s tightly concealed secrets are spilled open.

Ibsen was renowned for the realism in his works, using everyday people and depicting scenarios truthfully. His plays often caused uproar as he challenged social and psychological issues, revealing the truth behind social classes, gender roles and family. The focus being usually on moral dilemma and acknowledging people’s real selves. Putting on classic plays can be hit or miss with modern audiences, questioning whether it’s best to keep the play in its original format or whether to modernise. Where Romeo and Julie fell into a modern version so effortlessly, sadly Ghosts was a miss for me. 

First performed in 1882, Ghosts, had huge negative backlash due to its themes of venereal disease, incest, infidelity, religion and euthanasia. In order to modernise the text, Owen removed several of these themes that no longer would create the same shock factor and based the play around the main topic of incest and also consent. Owen and O’Riordan did try and balance these heavy topics with humour but this consequently diminished the significance of these themes.

Our introduction to Helena (Victoria Smurfitt) was shown through an entitled, wealthy upper class woman trying to rekindle an old flame with a now married man. Her desperate attempts to bury the past with little care for those it affected, was balanced with her own horrific stories of the abuse she faced in her relationship. It created a confusing conflict on whether to feel sorry for her or dislike her for her complicity, whether this was due to the writing or the delivery, I am undecided. The character of Oz was delivered flamboyantly and energetically by Callum Scott Howells who’s acting in my opinion, did carry the show. This being said, sometimes the heightened nature did result in laughter where maybe it wasn’t intentional, such as the threat to kill himself. The intimacy between Rhashan Stone and Smurfitt’s characters was forced and unnatural, and his updated character of Andersen existed only as a plot driver to gain more of an insight into Helena's life. Patricia Allison’s Reggie was sweet, but remained very one note excluding one outburst in Act 2. The combination of mismatched accents created an ambiguous location and felt distracting at times.

The switch up in the characters in act 2 from feeling sorry for themselves to almost accepting and embracing their true nature was very interesting. We witnessed Scott Howells nearly follow his dark urges in the path of his father but come to the realisation that this is a choice, and one he should not follow. After the reveal in act 1, act 2 had no direction but to continue to just wallow in the despair. Merle Hensel's minimalistic set did keep the focus on the characters and their dilemmas, however as someone who enjoys consistency, the sudden addition of music, blackouts and some movement in act 2 felt a bit jarring. Deka Walmsley’s performance must be commended for having real grit, as a man who’s worked hard to survive and keep quiet in the knowledge of this family’s evil dark secrets.

Rachel O'Riordan's question of "can we escape the shadows of our predecessors" is certainly rife, but the self absorbed nature of all the characters left me with little sympathy or care for their problems. While I appreciate the attempt to modernise the original, the combination of melodrama and realism was incompatible and therefore we lost the weight of the pivotal classic.

Ghosts is currently playing at the Lyric Hammersmith in London and is booking until 10 May 2025.