'Ibsen in Chicago' pursues 'Ghosts'

Maybe the only plot, in theatre or life, is change: facing it. And maybe the only role demanded of any of us, actor or not, is developing our authentic self. And maybe we are all immigrants, moving into new surroundings, as the Danish and Swedish immigrants were in 1880s Chicago. And, no matter our age, are we running from our past or toward our future?

Playwright’s David Grimm’s “Ibsen in Chicago,” a world premiere at the Seattle Repertory Theatre through March 4 provides a stage within a stage and offers his cast taking on Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts” to face their own. Henning Folden (an earnest and often frustrated Christopher McLinden) is a bricklayer by day but carries the weight of Ibsen’s art in his soul.

To express himself as director, he needs a cast. He enters with Helga (Kirsten Potter), regally attired in her two-feathered hat, her Danish red hair piled high, her dress floor length. She looks the part of the Royal Danish Theatre troupe she says she hails from. Potter’s confidence is so over-played its authenticity comes to be doubted. It must be great fun for an actor to play an actor, especially when the role is a caricature, offering one melodramatic gesture and pronouncement after another.

Her foil is the young Elsa (Hannah Ruwe), who has her own confidence and sharpness of wit. So, yes, you can laugh through the performance as the talented cast play off one another.

Per (R Hamilton Wright) and Pekka (Allen Fitzpatrick) are the other immigrant pair and also foils for each other. It is great to have a multi-generational cast. Per is from the generation of 1848, when socialist revolutions failed throughout Europe. Per, too, is earnest.

It is just as enjoyable to watch a rogue, the money-running “Paycheck” take on the role of Pastor Manders. Allen Fitzpatrick offers a confident immigrant faking his way through the worst excesses of petty success through petty thievery. He, too, gets the acting bug, faking one-reading memorization, before confessing the hours he spent learning his lines.

“Ghosts” is a significant play in the evolution of modern theatre. The 1880s is an evolutionary time for the approach to acting. “Naturalism,” the acting methods of today, were being birthed then. Grimm weaves these themes into the heart of his plot.

The transformation that occurs for the characters is mirrored in the physical set and Henning’s dress. The very talented stage crew excellently and subtlety “improve” Henning and the set as the story advances. Henning is wearing an overcoat over a loose-fitting work shirt and pants, with work boots when he and Helga walk into a near-abandoned warehouse space in the first scene. In subsequent scenes Henning is increasingly better dressed, till the final scene when he is on the set’s set as respectable Oswald Alving, the Captain’s heir. The set has transformed to a theatre stage complete with footlights and curtain. Impressive.

This is a fun show. You will think, though, as well as laugh. That’s a good combination.

For performance dates and times, call 206.443.2222 or https://www.seattlerep.org/Buy/Tickets/