An Ibsen too far at the Bridge
Tonight at the Bridge Theatre for Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman https://bridgetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/john-gabriel-borkman/ - a bit of a change of tempo from the Ray Cooney I saw last. With Simon Russell Beale as Borkman and Nicholas Hytner directing, it is difficult to go very far wrong, of course, but this late Ibsen is starting to knock on the door of the absurdists.
The initial premise, Borkman is a god of finance jailed for fraud (5 years) and hiding away in the top room of his house for a further 8, is unlikely and it is difficult to find human motivations here. Although the cast is very much more than competent, feelings and emotions are spelled out in the text, rather than relying on acting.
The situation is wholly unreal and Borkman’s sins are huge. Hytner’s direction is realistic, and Beale with Clare Higgins and Lia Williams as the two sisters to one of whom he is married, all give strong performances, but they cannot escape the plot with its ridiculously heightened realities.
It is not all bleak, there is incidental humour in this – the cast and direction search for all they can find. But a farce it ain’t. I’ve seen Simon Russel Beale as Timon of Athens and King Lear – his performance channels these but Borkman is not that type of tragic hero, leaning in the end more to bathos than pathos. For which Ibsen, rather than the cast or direction, is ultimately to blame.