Theater Review: "John Gabriel Borkman" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

It is winter and a storm is raging. Unfortunately, this one is located not outside but inside. “John Gabriel Borkman,” now playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, takes place on a set where no walls separate the house inside and the outside snow.

“John Gabriel Borkman” is Henrik Ibsen’s penultimate play and deals with a late 19th century household trapped in a perpetual emotional winter.

The play takes place eight years after John Gabriel Borkman’s (Alan Rickman) release from jail on charges of embezzlement. Disgraced from society, Borkman has locked himself into the second story of his house. The first 10 minutes contains the return of an old spurned flame, Ella Renthelm (Lindsay Duncan), who is the twin sister of Borkman’s wife, Gunhild (Fiona Shaw). The three characters proceed to spend the next two and a half hours arguing over the future of the Borkmans’ son, Erhart.
And such a long argument it is.

This incarnation is directed by James Macdonald, which is based on a translation by Frank McGuinness. Macdonald keeps the pace slow as death. This is detrimental because the storyline, while full of gripping confrontations, is too mundane and the dialogue too ordinary and unmemorable to warrant such a slow reading.

A stand-out moment between Ella and John, where she bitterly accuses him of destroying all of the love within her, is haunting in its exploration of squandered past and the bitter present. Such moments of dialogue are highlights in an otherwise monotonous production.

The main cast is powerful. Shaw is magnetic, injecting sympathy into her villainess character. Duncan is a picture-perfect image of regality and stoicism. Rickman delivers lines with his signature sarcastic intonation. His character becomes simultaneously wretched yet alluring.

The supporting cast, particularly Marty Rea as Erhart and Cathy Belton as Mrs. Fanny Wilton, manage to hold their own against such forces of artistic nature, which is no small compliment.

In the hands of lesser actors, the play would feel flat and ridiculous. Some moments border on the ludicrous, such as when Erhart cries out (twice) that he is young! And just wants to live!

Yet “John Gabriel Borkman” is powerful because it gathers such an accomplished team of actors, which elevates the dreary material. If there is any reason to see the play, it is to see them at work. Otherwise, the play is forgettable.

Details:
What: "John Gabriel Borkman" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
When: Until Feb. 6, 2011