Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Hayley Atwell, Tom Burke, Lucy Briers, Jake Fairbrother, Giles Terera, Peter Wight, Gavin Antony, Ebony Buckle, Piers Hampton, Maureen Hibbert, Robyn Lovell, Alice Vilanculo.
Love and grief go hand in hand, without one, arguably, you cannot have the other, both are so intrinsic to the human condition that our aspirations to find purpose, to propose revolution and swim against the tides and fears that are continuously placed before us, that threaten to drown us, are instead the welcoming release when all is lost.
Ibsen’s characters have the ability to unnerve the soul and like Arthur Miller a century later, drew upon the truth of tragedy to such an extent that the chill in the bones when conversing with the text, or seeing the performance played out on stage, is enough to render the audience to anything but sorrow, a sense of guilt that they could not put a halt to the personal catastrophe that unfolds and which is telegraphed from the beginning.
Perhaps this tragedy is expected, but it does not make it any the less persuasive to immerse yourself into, and whilst Rosmersholm does not receive the attention theatrically speaking that Hedda Gabler, Peer Gynt or A Doll’s House deservedly enjoys, to capture it on stage is nonetheless a matter of significance and testimony to the later playwriting of Ibsen.
The persuasion of guilt, of sorrow is intensified in Ian Rickson’s direction of the 1886 play, reflecting arguably the resonance of moment in which we find ourselves looking back on our own lives, the moment when our own faith was snatched from us, or when we gladly tossed it aside as if weighed down by stones and excess baggage.
In the same way that Arthur Miller’s work demands the audience to feel the shame of the characters, Ibsen is best seen through the openness of grief, an emotion that gets swept away in the human tide, but which is as natural as acknowledging that one sometimes cannot take a side because of pressure or position. To show that depth of complexity takes a company of souls who can convey sadness, fury and intrigue in equal measure, and with Tom Burke portraying John Rosmer, Hayley Atwell as Rebecca West and the exceptional Giles Terera as Andreas Kroll, Ian Rickson’s Rosmersholm throws down the gauntlet of heartbreak and ruin, of love and will with such a show of incredible fortitude, that it is surprising that the stage did not buckle under the weight of beauty on show.
Attention grabbing and provoking, Rosmersholm is a production of tremendous class.
 Ian D. Hall