STAGE REVIEWS : Theatre 40’s ‘Ghosts’ Has Some Meat on Its Bones

Quite often a company reviving a classic doesn’t give you the entire entree--but does manage to deliver enough nourishment to satisfy your palate. Such is the case with the Theatre 40 production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts” (1881).

The director, Charles Arthur, has included an insightful quote from Ibsen that helps set up what’s coming: “I couldn’t stop at ‘A Doll’s House.’ After Nora, I had to create Mrs. Alving (the leading character in ‘Ghosts’).”

The so-called “father of modern drama” wrote a play about a wife’s misplaced sense of duty and obligation, which Victorian Europe greeted with outrage. The scandal and timeless ghosts in Ibsen’s house convey a stinging sensation for every generation that sees it.

The rewards of Arthur’s direction are the brisk, crisp momentum and the company’s polished staging. The five member cast is uniformly effective. Particularly vivid are Katherine Henryk’s embattled widow whose marriage has been “a papered-over abyss” and Robert Nadder’s Puritanical pastor.

Secondary roles are distinctively drawn by the gruff Gene Ross, the feverish Michael Barak as the dissolute son dying of syphilis, and Elizabeth DuVall’s entrenched family maid and secret offspring of the lecherous, late Captain Alving.

The production has an attractive sheen about it--from Nancy Dunn Eisenman’s set design to Kelly Zitrick’s costumes. But the hairstyles and the clothes worn by the two women are not accurate for the period. DuVall’s skirt is much too form-fitting and Henryk’s blow-dry hair-style is not late 19th Century by any stretch.

The cool, clean line of the luxurious living quarters and the magnificent fjords lurking through the windows are beautiful, but they distract from the clanking, outmoded, musty ghosts that we should feel seeping out of the woodwork. This is an Architectural Digest house. It should be a tomb.

So, the appetizer and the dessert are wanting. But the meat and potatoes (translation by Christopher Hampton) are here.

* “Ghosts,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m., through April 21. $12-$15. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 15 min.