ABET | Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre

 
ABET News
posted by Guest Artist
Monday, January 11, 2010

Pushing The Envelope

by Erik DeCicco, director of GHOSTS

Henrik Ibsen finished the script of Ghosts in 1881. The original script was penned in Danish, and Ibsen’s title for the piece was Gengangere, which literally translated means, the ‘again walkers’. The play was then translated into English by William Archer, who, chose the title Ghosts. The play received its world premiere in Chicago in 1882, and has since been engulfed in a sea of negative publicity, mainly due to the subject matter. The play, Ghosts, is approaching its one hundred and thirtieth birthday, and still engages social questions that remain relevant today: alcoholism, sexual disease, and infidelity.

This particular version, translated by Lanford Wilson, pushes the envelope even further, drawing special attention to the transgressions of each character, not one or two. The action of this play sends the characters through multiple journeys, which force all of them to change and adapt. It is within this growth that the ghosts of past generations are unknowingly awakened and the ghosts of future generations are unwillingly created.