A mother's love letter becomes her son's death sentence. Ibsen weaponizes politeness.
Adaptation of Ibsen’s play. Mrs Alving’s son is ill - but what with?
Acting
Dorothy Tutin's precision-cut suffering.
Writing
Ibsen's dialogue: poison in lace gloves.
Director
David Cunliffe
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ibsen wrote this in 1881; it was so scandalous that theatres refused to stage it. A 1977 TV adaptation meant British audiences finally saw what Victorian prudes suppressed.
Oswald's 'madness' was understood by original audiences as congenital syphilis—making Mrs. Alving's 'ghosts' literal inherited disease, not just metaphor.
GB
