Perhaps not the best known of Ibsen's plays and on the face it not a crowd-pleaser given the subject material this turned out to be a truly great production of what we discovered to be a truly great play. It was deeply moving and it had me in tears more than once.
It tells the story of a couple whose disabled son is coming between them. The arrival of the pest controller rat-wife and her Pied-Piper-of-Hamelin powers of drawing rats into the waters soon has a tragic effect on the family. Within the 80 minute running time we see buckets of painful raw emotion, bitter recriminations, death, grief, blame, nudity, incest, and a cute little dog.
A minimal set, simple blocking but a brilliant cast pull out all of their acting stops and we left the theatre shattered. Special mention needs to go to leading lady Lydia Leonard who puts on a simply devastating performance.
Highly recommended.
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