New Adaptation

London plays host to a revival of Henrik Ibsen's shocking play Ghosts, at the Lyric Hammersmith. Newly adapted by Welsh playwright Gary Owen and directed by his Romeo and Julie and Iphignia in Splott collaborator Rachel O'Riordan, the revival stars Victoria Smurfit (Once Upon A Time) as Helena and Callum Scott Howells (It's a Sin) as Oz, as well as Patricia Allison (Sex Education) as Reggie. The first Ibsen work to grace the candlelit stage, Ghosts is one of his most divisive. A scathing commentary on morality, its themes of incest, STDs, and euthanasia caused controversy on its 19th-century premiere, yet has since become regarded as one of his finest (if rarely produced) masterworks.

What is the story?

Gary Owen's adaptation re-sets the tale in modern day England, following the widow Helena as she tries to start her life anew after the death of her philandering husband. She is determined that her son Oz will not follow the same path through life as his father, but when Oz returns home for the unveiling of a children's hospital in his father's name, she discovers that she may already be too late.