With season three of The White Lotus, London’s two recent Oedipuses, and now this extraordinary show, revelations of incest that make an audience gasp and squirm seem to be having a moment. Gary Owen’s gripping contemporary version of Henrik Ibsen’s airless 1881 drama is quite astonishing, not least in its use of humour to defray the fatalism and ponderous foreshadowing of the original.
Rachel O’Riordan’s production is impeccably cast, with riveting central performances from Rivals/Cold Feet star Victoria Smurfit — returning to the stage after 17 years away — as Helena and It’s a Sin’s Callum Scott Howells as her son Oz. It stumbles slightly towards the end but remains a wrenching, scorching piece of theatre. Did I mention it’s also horribly funny?
