Ghosts

There are ghosts everywhere.
There are ghosts here right now.

Plagued by the ugly truth of her late husband's legacy, Helene vows to erase the past and start again.

Ignorant to the reality of his father's character, Osvald, her son, returns home to face an uncertain future. But when the ember of an illicit romance stands to ruin Helene's plans to play happy family, she is forced to make a decision that threatens to engulf what's left of her - and her son's - life completely.

Experience the work of Henrik Ibsen, one of the most influential dramatists of all time, in a scandalous and searing exploration of family secrets and forbidden desire. Nearly 150 years after causing a furore when it premiered with its depiction of incest, infection and euthanasia, adaptor and director Joe Hill-Gibbins (The Marriage of Figaro, ENO; The Tragedy of King Richard The Second, Almeida), in his Globe debut, brings a new version of Ghosts, the first modern tragedy, to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Ghosts was part of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse 10th Anniversary Season. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at The Globe's Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in November 2023.


About the Author

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) has been described as 'the father of modern theatre'. Most of his early plays were traditional historical dramas. After 'Peer Gynt', a fairy-tale fantasy in verse, Ibsen wrote the rest of his plays in prose, and came to be regarded as the great Naturalist dramatist.

Joe Hill-Gibbins is a British theatre and opera director. Joe directed his first professional production in 2002 as winner of the James Menzies-Kitchen Young Director Award. Between 2000 and 2004 he worked for the Royal Court Theatre, as an assistant director and then Trainee Associate Director. Between 2007 and 2013 he was a resident director at the Young Vic Theatre, and became Deputy Artistic Director. In 2014 he directed his first opera, Powder Her Face for English National Opera, and in 2018 his first German language theatre production, Mary Page Marlowe for Theater Basel.