"GHOSTS" IN THE PAST."

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1938, Page 21

"GHOSTS" IN THE PAST."

Half a century ago Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" shook. the world -with cataclysmic force} toßay tKe world looks more quietly at it. Aiidiences can still be stunned by its tragic impact, for its characters are human beings caught up in desperate circumstances. But no longer do audiences raise, a cry because their moral sensibilities are - - Hurt. Ibsen's great tragedy ' has become a classic of the modern theatre;" in New York Mme. |Alla~!Nazimova, star of the silent screen, created a deep impression as the grey-haired, tragically-resigned figure of Mrs. Alving. "Ghosts,"'reveals that conventional marriage 'can be a hideous and meaningless sacrifice'to ideals. Whcp. it was first presented the official censors and'city fathers were profoundly shocked, and for a'long time no self-respecting theatre in Europe would, allow "Ghosts" on -its stage. Refused by all the theatres in Scandinavia, the play had to wait twn years before it was performed. Even then the first performance—in Helsingborg in August, 1883-^-was put on surreptitiously by an itinerant % troupe. Berlin did not see the play until 1887, when a private matinee was given at the Residenz Theatre. The first. Paris production was in 1890. «When, in March, 1891, the enterprising London producer, J.'T. Grein, dared to show "Ghosts" at his Independent Theatre, there was such an outcry "throughout Victorian England" that but a Single performance was given. Recently New Zealand's clever actress, Marie Ney, appeared in a successful London revival.