"The virtue of this bitingly intelligent production is that it brings out all Ibsen's moral elusiveness: he sees the rotteness of the system but he also realises that, in a mercantile society, jobs will be lost if there is a crisis of public confidence. And this all emerges through Ian McKellen's brilliant performance as Bernick. Ramrod-backed, wavy-haired, perpetually busy, he is at first the model entrepeneur. Gradually he gives way to fluster and hysteria (notice the way the hands depend heavily from the wrist) as his life-lies are exposed. But his final speech, in which he atones by creating a public company, hits just the right note of arrogant modesty exemplified by the conspiratorial look he gives the free-thinking Lona Hessel when he dares to say, 'Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.' " — Michael Billington, The Guardian
Banner photo:
Griffith Jones (Vigeland), Ivan Beavis (Rummell), Ian McKellen (Karsten Bernick), and Leon Tanner (Sandstad)
Comments and Reviews
"The virtue of this bitingly intelligent production is that it brings out all Ibsen's moral elusiveness: he sees the rotteness of the system but he also realises that, in a mercantile society, jobs will be lost if there is a crisis of public confidence. And this all emerges through Ian McKellen's brilliant performance as Bernick. Ramrod-backed, wavy-haired, perpetually busy, he is at first the model entrepeneur. Gradually he gives way to fluster and hysteria (notice the way the hands depend heavily from the wrist) as his life-lies are exposed. But his final speech, in which he atones by creating a public company, hits just the right note of arrogant modesty exemplified by the conspiratorial look he gives the free-thinking Lona Hessel when he dares to say, 'Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.' " — Michael Billington, The Guardian