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GHOSTS
First published in 2013 by Oberon Books Ltd
521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH
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Translation copyright © Stephen Unwin, 2013
Stephen Unwin is hereby identified as author of this translation in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights.
All rights whatsoever in this translation are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to the author c/o Oberon Books. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-052-2
E ISBN: 978-1-78319-551-0
Cover design by feastcreative.com
Printed, bound and converted
by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
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This production of Ghosts was first produced by Rose Theatre Kingston and English Touring Theatre on 19 September 2013 at the Rose Theatre Kingston.
| ENGSTRAND | Pip Donaghy | |
| PASTOR MANDERS | Patrick Drury | |
| REGINA ENGSTRAND | Florence Hall | |
| MRS ALVING | Kelly Hunter | |
| OSVALD ALVING | Mark Quartley | |
| Director | Stephen Unwin | |
| Designer | Simon Higlett | |
| Lighting Designer | Paul Pyant | |
| Composer | Corin Buckeridge | |
| Dramaturg | Sue Prideaux | |
| Casting Director | Ginny Schiller CDG | |
| Assistant Director | Kim Pearce |
A note on the translation
In respect of language, Ibsen stands at a unique disadvantage. Never before has a poet of world-wide fame appealed to his world-wide audience so exclusively in translations.
William Archer
Ibsen knew that he wrote in a ‘small language’ and that if his plays were to have an impact, they would have to be translated.
Ibsen’s Norwegian is remarkably spare and direct. Indeed, some early critics dismissed his naturalistic plays as having little literary value. But that is to misunderstand Ibsen’s intentions, as he wrote in a letter of 1883:
In the last seven or eight years, I have hardly written a single line of verse; instead I have exclusively studied the incomparably more difficult art of writing in the straightforward honest language of reality.
Furthermore, Ibsen specified that his plays should be translated into the everyday language of the audience to whom they are played. My aim has been to give the actors space and not load them down with too many words.
But Ibsen was a great poet and very particular in his intentions. I’ve resisted the temptation to use English’s huge vocabulary to soften the pattern of repeated words that creates the text’s allusive character, and I’ve tried to ensure that the more poetic phrases arise from the character’s responses to the situation and don’t feel imposed. I’ve avoided English Victorianisms or additional explanatory phrases. I’ve also tried to retain a sense of nineteenth-century social mores and convey something of the play’s particular Scandinavian atmosphere.
Like many translators of Ibsen, I’m dependent on others. I’ve drawn on several translations, especially early ones, and Sue Prideaux has helped me with dozens of details. And then, of course, there are the actors: in just a few short days of rehearsal they helped me improve it enormously. To all, our thanks.
Translation is always and inevitably a compromise. I hope I’ve created something which the actors will enjoy playing and the audiences will want to engage with. Ibsen’s great play deserves no less.
Stephen Unwin
Characters
MRS ALVING
OSVALD ALVING, her son
PASTOR MANDERS
ENGSTRAND, a carpenter
REGINA ENGSTRAND, in Mrs Alving’s service
The action takes place at Mrs Alving’s house on one of the larger fjords of Western Norway.
Конец
