Adapted and Directed by Richard Eyre
By Henrik Ibsen
Tickets £8 - £32
Helene Alving has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father.
But on his return from his life as a painter in France, Oswald reveals how he has already inherited the legacy of Alving’s dissolute life.
Lesley Manville leads the cast as Helene in Richard Eyre’s new adaptation of Ibsen’s play. One of Britain’s most respected actresses, Lesley Manville was last seen on stage in the National Theatre’s 2012 production of Grief. Her recent screen credits include May Day (BBC) and the Mike Leigh film Another Year, for which she won numerous awards.
Richard Eyre’s most recent production for the Almeida was last year’s acclaimed The Dark Earth and the Light Sky. He previously directed Hedda Gabler in 2005, which he also adapted. His recent stage productions include Quartermaine’s Terms (Wyndham’s Theatre) and The Pajama Game (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Audio Described Performance
Sat 16 Nov 2.30pm
(Touch Tour at 12.45pm)
AWARDS
Laurence Olivier Award Best Revival
Laurence Olivier Award Best Actress Lesley Manville
Laurence Olivier Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role Jack Lowden
Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress Lesley Manville
Oswald
Jack trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Theatre includes: Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre / West End); Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland / Barbican/ US Tour); Sweet Sorrow; Crime & Punishment; Uncle Vanya; A View From the Bridge; Peter Pan (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).
Television includes: The Tunnel; Mrs. Biggs; Blue Haven; Being Victor.
Film includes: uwantme2killhim?; 71.
Manders
For the Almeida: Waste; Tom & Viv; Five Gold Rings.
Theatre includes: Quartermaine’s Terms (West End); Hysteria; Man and Superman; Don Juan (Theatre Royal Bath); Huis Clos; Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Donmar Warehouse);Macbeth; The Changeling (Barbican); The Arsonists (Royal Court); The Rubinstein Kiss (Hampstead Theatre); Pericles; Prince of Homburg (Lyric Hammersmith); Dido, Queen of Carthage; The Tempest; Two Noble Kinsmen (Globe Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi; The Coast of Utopia; Mary Stuart (National Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (West End); The Seagull; Present Laughter; The Tempest (West Yorkshire, Playhouse); Elton John’s Glasses (West End); Phaedra; Traveller without Luggage (BAC).
Television includes: Silk; Hitler on Trial; Garrow’s Law; Titanic; Foyles War; Wired; Casualty 1907; The Colour of Magic; Elizabeth 1; The Impressionists; Holby City; Murphy’s Law; Into the Void; Monsignor Renard; The Bill; For Valour; Do the Right Thing; Martin Chuzzlewit;Between the Lines; Inspector Alleyn.
Film includes: Love and other Disasters; The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz.
Helene
Theatre includes: Grief; Her Naked Skin; Pillars of the Community; The Alchemist; His Dark Materials (National Theatre); Six Degrees of Separation; All About My Mother (Old Vic); Some Girls (West End); Top Girls; Serious Money; The Popes Wedding; Falkland Sound; American Bagpipes; Rita, Sue and Bob Too; Borderline; Three Sisters (Royal Court); The Wives Excuse; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; As You Like It; Philistines (RSC); Miss Julie (Greenwich); The Cherry Orchard (Aldwych).
Television includes: An Adventure in Space and Time; Fleming; Mayday; Cranford; North & South; Bodily Harm; Other Peoples’ Children; Promoted to Glory; The Cazalets; David Copperfield; Painted Lady; The Bite; Holding On; Little Napoleons; Real Women; Tears Before Bedtime; A Statement of Affairs; Top Girls; Grown-Ups; The Firm.
Film includes: Maleficent; Romeo and Juliet; Molly Moon The Incredible Hypnotist; The Christmas Candle; Ashes; Spike Island; Another Year; A Christmas Carol; Sparkle; All or Nothing; Topsy-Turvy; Secrets and Lies; High Hopes.
Jacob
Theatre includes: A Doll’s House (National Theatre Scotland); A Number; The Mercy Seat; Gargarin Way (Prime Cut Theatre); Street Angels (Half Moon); The Jim Jones Story (Cumberland Theatre); Red Wind (Partisan Theatre Co); Off the Tracks (Edinburgh Festival); Damaged Goods (Arches Theatre); Life of Stuff (Traverse Theatre); Sex Comedies (Old Red Lion/Tron).
Television includes: The Crash; Mi High; Casualty; Doors Open; Vexed; Case Histories; Line of Duty; The Accused; Taggart; Anywhere But Here; River City; Kiss of Death; Rebus;Shameless; Whistleblowers; Warriors; Lilies; Low Winter Sun; Murphy’s Law; The Bill; Tinsel Town; Kavanagh QC; Kidnapped; Waterfront Beat; Eastenders; Forget About Me; Still Life; Murder Most Horrid; Doctor Finlay; Rik Mayall Presents.
Film includes: Filth; For Those In Peril; Sleepyhead; Soulboy; The Damned United; Solid Air; Mr Barrington; Beyond City Limits; Rituals and Resolutions; 200 Cigarettes; Speed 2;Ghost and the Darkness; Rob Roy.
Brian trained at Rose Bruford College.
Regina
Theatre includes: The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court); Lonesome West (The Lyric, Belfast); Romeo & Juliet; Dancing At Lughnasa (The Garage, Monaghan).
Television includes: Skins Redux: Fire; Ripper Street; Misfits; Raw; Sirens; Law and Order: UK; Being Human; Pure Mule; The Fixer; Whistleblower; Single Handed: Stolen Child; The Old Curiosity Shop; Kitchen; Prosperity; 99-100.
Film includes: A Boy Called Dad; Dorothy Mills; Porcelain; Middletown; Tigers Tale; Small Engine Repair; Breakfast on Pluto.
Charlene received the IFTA Television Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role for Raw and the Award for Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival for her performance in Whistleblower.
Director
Richard was Director of the National Theatre from 1988 – 1997. He has received numerous major awards; he was knighted in 1997 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011.
For the Almeida: The Dark Earth and the Light Sky; Hedda Gabler; The Judas Kiss;The Novice.
Theatre includes: Hamlet; Kafka’s Dick; Edmond (Royal Court); Liolà; Comedians; Guys and Dolls; The Government Inspector; The Changeling; The Voysey Inheritance; Racing Demon; Richard III; Night of the Iguana; White Chameleon; Skylight; Napoli Milionaria; Sweet Bird of Youth; The Absence of War; John Gabriel Borkman; Amy’s View; King Lear; The Invention of Love; Vincent in Brixton; The Reporter; The Observer; Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre); The Crucible (Broadway); Mary Poppins; Private Lives (West End/Broadway); A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic); The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre); Quartermaine’s Terms (West End).
Opera includes: La Traviata (Royal Opera House); La Nozze di Figaro (Aix-en-Prevence); Carmen (Metropolitan Opera).
Television includes: Henry IV Parts I and II; The Insurance Man; Country; Tumbledown; Suddenly Last Summer; Changing Stages.
Film includes: The Ploughman’s Lunch; Iris; Stage Beauty; Notes on a Scandal; The Other Man.
Design
For the Almeida: Mrs Klein.
Theatre includes: Timon of Athens; Welcome to Thebes; Rafta Rafta; Present Laughter; Henry IV; The Talking Cure; Vincent in Brixton; Humble Boy; Stanley; Hamlet; Sleep with Me; Darker Face of the Earth; Flight; Caucasian Chalk Circle (National Theatre); Quartermaine’s Terms; The Bodyguard; Don Quixote (Royal Ballet); Betty Blue Eyes; Shrek the Musical; Spamalot; Private Lives; Suddenly Last Summer; The Crucible (Broadway); Endgame; 3 Lives of Lucie Cabrol; Out of a House Walked a Man (Complicite); My Fair Lady (Theatre du Châtelet, Paris).
Opera includes: La Traviata (Vlaamse Opera); Figaro (Aix-en-Provence); Love for 3 Oranges (Cologne); Carmen; Orpheus in the Underworld; Return of Ulysses (Opera North); Ariadne auf Naxos; Il Trovatore (Scottish Opera).
Film includes: Stage Beauty; Closer; Notes on a Scandal.
Exhibitions include: Vivienne Westwood, a London Fashion; Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes (V&A).
He received the Olivier Award for Stanley and Private Lives and the Tony Award for Private Lives and Shrek the Musical.
Lighting
For the Almeida: The Dark Earth and the Light Sky; Parlour Song; Rosmersholm; Hedda Gabler; Cloud Nine; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; Earth and the Great Weather; The Storm; Venice Preserved; The Winter Guest; The School for Wives.
Theatre includes: King Kong (Regent Theatre, Melbourne); Top Hat; Absent Friends; Much Ado About Nothing; The Lion in Winter; The Misanthrope; An Ideal Husband; Carousel; Fiddler on the Roof (West End); The Same Deep Water as Me (Donmar Warehouse); Circle Mirror Transformation; Love and Information; Jumpy; Our Private Life; Sucker Punch; Cock; The Seagull; Drunk Enough to Say I Love You; Dying City (Royal Court); Betrayal (Sheffield Crucible); The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre); Testament (Dublin Theatre Festival); A Streetcar Named Desire (Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis); Heartbreak House (Chichester Festival Theatre); Pictures from an Exhibition (Young Vic); Scenes from an Execution; All’s Well That Ends Well; The Hothouse; Exiles (National Theatre).
Opera and dance include: The Damnation of Faust; Lucrezia Borgia; Elegy for Young Lovers; Punch and July (also Geneva); Bluebeard’s Castle; Madame Butterfly (English National Opera); Faster; E=MC² (Birmingham Royal Ballet); Pelleas and Melisande (Mariinsky); The Soldier’s Tale; Pierrot Lunaire (Chicago Symphony); Madama Butterfly; Faust; Carmen; Peter Grimes; 125th Gala (New York Met); Eugene Onegin (LA Opera / Royal Opera House); Passion (Minnesota Opera); La Cenerentola (Glyndebourne); Carmen (also set design); Petrushka (Scottish Ballet); Il Trovatore (Paris); Fidelio; Two Widows; Don Giovanni; The Ring (Scottish Opera); The Midsummer Marriage (Chicago Lyric Opera); The Bartered Bride (Royal Opera House).
Peter received the 1995 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for The Glass Blew In (Siobahn Davies) and Fearful Symmetries (Royal Ballet), the 2003 Olivier Lighting Award for The Bacchai (National Theatre), the Knight of Illumination Award in 2010 for Sucker Punch (Royal Court) and the Helpmann Award for Best Lighting for King Kong in 2013. He is currently directing/designing a concert version of The Ring Cycle for Opera North.
Sound
John has designed sound for more than 100 productions at the Almeida Theatre.
For the Almeida: The Turn of the Screw; The Dark Earth and the Light Sky; Filumena; The Master Builder; Becky Shaw; Measure For Measure; Rope; Duet for One; Waste; The Homecoming; Big White Fog; Dying for It; Hedda Gabler; Macbeth; Brighton Rock; Whistling Psyche; Five Gold Rings; The Mercy Seat.
Other theatre includes: A Little Hotel on the Side (Donmar Warehouse); Joe Egg (Liverpool Playhouse); The Guinea Pig Club (York Theatre Royal); Bully Boy (Northampton / St. James Theatre); Rough Justice (UK Tour); Life for Beginners; Beasts (Theatre503); Birthday; Tribes (Royal Court); Detroit; Grief; Rocket to the Moon (National Theatre); Ladies In Lavender (Northampton Theatre Royal / Tour); Farewell to the Theatre (Hampstead Theatre); Here; The Lady from the Sea; The Snow Queen (Rose Theatre, Kingston); The Heresy of Love (RSC Swan Theatre);Big Maggie (Druid Theatre, Galway / Tour); The Last of the Duchess; Skane (Hampstead Theatre); Cool Hand Luke (West End); Basket Case (Northampton / UK Tour); Rattigan’s Nijinsky; The Deep Blue Sea (Chichester Festival Theatre); 5@50 (Manchester Royal Exchange); Ecstasy (Hampstead Theatre / West End); The Cripple Of Inishmaan (Druid Theatre / US Tour / New York).
Casting
Theatre includes: Raving (Hampstead Theatre); Chariots of Fire (West End second cast); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Judas Kiss; The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre).
Television includes: Big Bad World; Coma Girl; Stella; Vexed; A Touch of Frost; TheTime of Your Life; The State Within; Beneath the Skin; Recovery.
Film includes: Heart of Lightness; Forget Me Not; Gin and Dry; Dyatlov Pass Incident; Creation; The Nutcracker; TheSecret of Moonacre; Mr Bean’s Holiday; Good.
Associate Designer
As Designer, theatre includes: Quiz Show (Traverse Theatre); Danny’s Brain (Hampstead Theatre); Blue Remembered Hills; Playhouse Creatures; Fred’s Diner (Theatre on the Fly / Chichester Festival Theatre); Single Spies; Heroes; Educating Rita (Watermill Theatre); Backbeat (West End / Toronto / Los Angeles); Les Parents Terrible (Donmar Warehouse at Trafalgar Studios); The Importance of Being Earnest (Guildford Shakespeare Company); A Voyage Around My Father (Salisbury Playhouse); Measure for Measure (Theatre Royal Plymouth / UK tour); Jesus Christ Superstar ( Madrid / European tour); Shangri-La (European tour); No, It Was You (Arcola Theatre);The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (Gate Theatre); Broken Voices (Tristan Bates Theatre); The Smallest Thing (The Place); This Story of Yours (New End Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Northampton Theatre); The Outsider (Etcetera Theatre).
Assistant Director
Gaby is a writer and director for film and television. Her recent directing credits include the television drama Leaving with Helen McCrory and Callum Turner and the feature film Abandoned with Jeremy Piven and Elizabeth McGovern. Her debut short film Toy Boys featured Lesley Manville.
As director credits also include: On a Clear Day; Two Wheels Only.
Gaby has also worked as an actress including with the Actors Gang in Los Angeles, at the Royal Court with Max Stafford Clark and at the Gate Theatre with David Farr.
Literal Translator
Charlotte translates Scandinavian plays and novels.
Her translation of August Strindberg’s The Pelican was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She translated Ingmar Bergman’s version of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, which was performed at the Barbican. Her translation of the Norwegian crime novel Calling Out For You! by Karin Fossum was nominated for the 2005 Gold Dagger Award by the British Crime Writers’ Association. Her translation of I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson was shortlisted for the Independent 2011 Foreign Fiction Award.
Other translated novels include: A Fairy Tale by Jonas T. Bengtsson; Black Sky, Black Sea by Izzet Celasin; Dinosaur Feather by Sissel-Jo Gazan; When the Dead Awaken by Steffen Jacobsen; Machine and The Brummstein by Peter Adolphsen; Death Sentence by Mikkel Birkegaard; the crime novels Pierced, Burned and Scarred by Thomas Enger, and The Son by Jo Nesbo.
★★★★★ A production that does full justice to this thrilling, harrowing play.
Daily Telegraph
★★★★★ ...by far and away the best production I have ever seen at the theatre.
Sunday Telegraph
★★★★ Grabs you by the throat and never releases its grip... extraordinary production.
The Guardian
★★★★ Eyre's staging is compellingly vibrant, with an assured sense of itself.
Evening Standard
★★★★ A triumph - the combination of the intelligent performances and the mesmerising aesthetic make this the most lucid and affecting version of the play I have ever seen.
Time Out
The running time is approximately 90 minutes. There is no interval.