This contemporary spin on Henrik Ibsen’s 1888 play isn’t, as one character rages, “a fucking Jane Austen novel”, though director Simon Stone does drag the action away from the Norwegian fjords to the staid Lake District. Here the middle class, middle-aged doctor Edward (an excellent Andrew Lincoln) is juggling a household of grieving women: his restless second wife, Ellida (Alicia Vikander), has recently miscarried, while his two teenage daughters are struggling after the suicide of their mother, Edward’s first wife. Added to the mix is Edward’s oddball distant cousin, Heath (Joe Alwyn), who has just been handed a death sentence in the form of an ALS diagnosis.
Admittedly, it doesn’t sound like a laugh riot, but it is very funny, largely thanks to the arrival of Edward’s old friend Lyle (a superbly wry John Macmillan) and the irrepressible teenagers – Gracie Oddie-James and Isobel Akuwudike inject as much life and as many layers as possible into the wounded, wise-cracking sisters Asa and Hilda. Their energy and angsty wit crackles throughout the drama – and only occasionally jars tonally – even as their father’s marriage begins to unravel: Ellida is not just mourning her unborn baby but also a long-lost love. Finn, a climate activist she fell in love with at 15, has just been released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit nearly 20 years ago. Now that he’s free, Ellida is desperate to finish what they started.
Lizzie Clachan’s deceptively simple set opens as a sparsely furnished, sun-drenched white platform in the centre of the theatre, but transforms in the second half. Now cast in black, the centre of the stage sinks into a pool as heavy rain pours from above. It’s suitably dramatic for the play’s climactic confrontations. Yet as the rain continues to pound down, the staging works against the story: instead of augmenting the actors’ anguish, it begins to distract from it. With characters this rich and lives this tangled, I would have preferred it if more space was given to tease out their stories further – rather than pouring water on the whole thing.
The Lady from the Sea
Bridge Theatre, London SE1
[Further reading: Doomers records our AI angst]
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This article appears in the 25 Sep 2025 issue of the New Statesman, “Are you up for it?” – Andy Burnham’s plan for Britain
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