Sewell Barn Theatre

Sewell Barn Theatre

Marking the centenary of Ibsen's death, this classic of ideas and social issues resonates sharply, sadly, with today.

The whistle-blower becomes the outcast; the baying mob damns the man with the conscience.

A doctor finds impurities from a factory in the town bathwater supply. The revelation incurs the wrath of the business community including his own brother.

Director Peter James brings to life the upturning of stones through Victorian characters and the constraints of the stage shape with more humour than one would have thought possible from Ibsen.

The doctor (Bob Young) carries rebel's passion well and his funereal brother (Ralph Yarrow) is an excellent foil. Petra (Rachel Miller) the doctor's daughter is a chip from his block while her mother (Imogen Fletcher) walks

the line between wifely loyalty and practicality.

All in all, the evening is an unexpectedly stirring and inspirational warning from the past.