Rosmersholm Duke of York's Theatre

                                                  
Contains spoilers
Simply stunning and breathtaking, although simply is too vague a word to us!  An amazing cast bringing to life a wonderful take of politics, intrigue and hidden secrets with a climactic ending that's only predictable if you've read the entirety of this fabulous tale based on Henrik Ibsen's play and is considered to be the most darkest of his writings.
Hayley Atwell as Rebecca West and Tom Burke as Johannes Rosmer of the titular character; are so captivating and there is so much sexual chemistry between them.

Rebecca is a woman who has no means of her own and she states as such, she doesn't even have voting rights and all she has is her body and her mind, but alas no one wants to know a woman or want her for her mind back then.  They're paid a visit by the Governor before the elections and he wants people to vote for a righteous candidate, until he discovers that Rosmer has lost his wife, given up on God, as he was a pastor in another life.  He has guilty feelings over the loss of his wife, Beth who committed suicide by the footbridge visible through the window (but not to the audience).  As the opening scene shows Rebecca looking through that same window, as well as parts being changed in the play as such as this opening scene, whereas in the original version, she is actually crocheting a shawl.  We do get a shawl in the final moments but it's not crocheted.

Sumptuous period costumes, well as sumptuous as you can get in a theatre production, well forget  that I'm not making a big deal out of that and a set portraying Rosmer's financial position too as he says at the end that he doesn't have anything to his name and he has signed everything over to Rebecca, who has her own secrets and is convinced that his love for her will bring Rosmer back to God, his faith and even getting people who find nobility in their lives and for everyone to be equal.

The Governor being Rosmer's brother-in-law, Kroll (Giles Terera) has secrets too, not least in his publication, The Tribune, in rivalry with The Lighthouse, written by a man, Mortensgaard who was also turned into an outcast by the local people helmed by Rosmer and lost his reputation as he was with a woman whose husband had left her and they had a child together who died.  Kroll is also a right wing bigot (very topical as most plays of our time are in their productions.) But Mortensgaard (Jake Fairbrother) who is leftist, isn't portrayed in a good light.  No pun re his publication The Lighthouse, he wants to bring light into the world.

Rosmer is inwardly conflicted and doesn't like the world and its bureaucracy, neither does Rebecca.  Female emancipation and the importance of politics are abundant and once again topical with the world of fake news/Brexit and other political connotations.  Fast paced in places but not so it becomes unintelligible to follow.  Rebecca's line of not being sure if she follows Rosmer or he follows her reminded me of Twitter/social media.  Modern audiences may have a little trouble equating the importance of the value with reputation in public life.  How Kroll erroneously believes Rosmer and Rebecca are having an affair and she should marry him as marriage is important between a man and woman.  As the housekeeper, Mrs Helseth (Lucy Briers) tells her that the Rosmer children never cry, adults never laugh, which Rosmer decides he wants to do.  Explaining his line of being middle aged since he was born! (Which I had the chance to repeat back to Tom!)

Rosmer has many ghosts from his past and his family name eating away at him, as shown by the portraits of the generations looking down at him in his study.  But he wants equality for everyone and the servants had a distinct knack of listening at keyholes.  After he declares his love for Rebecca, she doesn't want him but tells him he should vote and vote with his conscience as she watches him with the Governor taking the long way round and not crossing the footbridge.  Beth's ghost still haunting him too.  After the Governor spills the beans about Rebecca's secret she prepares to leave, she has a sexual history, with her real father and her mother didn't tell her who he was, Dr West.  Which also damns and confines her sexuality as a woman.  At the last moment she decides they should leave together and start over where no one knows them.  As they walk over that footbridge the mill wheel is blocked and the house floods once again as it did when Beth died.

The poster explaining the heady ending!!

Add to that some exceptional dialogue, a reappearance by the tutor who taught Rosmer whom they believed was dead, almost akin to his wife turning up and things not going well for him as no one wants to listen to his lecture in town.  As well as Rosmersholm men never smiling or having any joy which he wants to change and believes he can do that with Rebecca.  As he tells the Governor, he was "born middle aged...I had no childhood..."  As well as wanting his God back.  Powerful stuff!

To me there were echoes of  George Elliot's The Mill On The Floss (1860) re the wheel and the flooding, Jane Eyre (written 1847) with Beth being mad, like the first Mrs Rochester and Mr Rochester's fierce desire for Jane.  As well as a little Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca (though that came after) who committed suicide by scuppering her boat in the sea.  Explains plenty of why it's dark though this was written in 1886 much later than Jane Eyre and The Mill On the Floss.

A must see and not just if you're fans of the leads!  It'll go down as well as their meal of fermented trout!!
Duke of York's theatre, London.  Until 20th July.