'Ghosts' an anomaly for Off the Wall productions

Since it began in 2007, Off The Wall Productions has staged dozens of contemporary plays. But the Carnegie-based theater company has never done a classic.

True, last December it produced “Or,” about Restoration-era London poet, spy and professional playwright Aphra Behn.

“But that was a modern play,” says actress, playwright and Off the Wall's artistic director Virginia Wall Gruenert. “Since we started, I've wanted to do a classic.”

What stopped her was that most classics have big casts and need elaborate sets and costumes that are not a good fit for a 96-seat theater with a limited budget.

Normally, Gruenert says: “My philosophy is: one actor, one lightbulb.”

But her love of Henrik Ibsen and his seldom-performed, five-character drama “Ghosts” allowed an exception to the rule. Gruenert's adaptation of the 1881 drama will open Feb. 27.

The ghosts of Ibsen's play are not ectoplasmic spirits like Jacob Marley, who haunted Scrooge, or Banquo, who materialized at Macbeth's feast. They are the unspoken secrets and past sins that lurk in the corners, no matter how hard individuals, families and society work to keep them buried.

The play focuses on Mrs. Alving, a widow who, on the advice of her pastor, silently suffered and concealed her husband's infidelities. Ten years after her husband's death, she is preparing to dedicate an orphanage in his memory.

When their son, Oswald, returns home for the ceremony showing symptoms of the venereal disease that killed his father and embarks on a relationship with a housemaid, Mrs. Alving is forced to confront the ghosts of her past.

Contemporary audiences will know that the idea of Oswald inheriting syphilis from his father is medically impossible. But that doesn't make the underlying issues of the play improbable, Gruenert says.

“Back then, they believed it was possible, and, therefore, the son believed that it happened and the mother believed it was the truth,” Gruenert says.

Oswald has inherited — or at least displays — unpleasant aspects and behaviors that remind Mrs. Alving of her husband and make her want to break the cycle.

“The story is relevant. It's about female power and a woman trying to escape the restrictions put on her because she is a woman,” Gruenert says. “Don't hush up secrets. Revelation, no matter the consequence, is the thing to do.”

Gruenert created the script for the production from three previous uncredited adaptations. She also appears in the production as Mrs. Alving.

“I love acting. It's my first love,” she says. “I have tried to do one show a season. But I hadn't been on-stage since December 2013. It was time to go back.”

Also cast are Ken Bolden as Pastor Manders, Shaun Cameron Hall as Oswald Alving, Weston Blakesley as Jacob Engstrand and Sarah Silk as Regina Engstrand. Simm Landres directs.

Off the Wall isn't moving away from staging contemporary works and nurturing and empowering the area's female theater artists, Gruenert says.

“This is an anomaly. It certainly will not change our focus,” she says. But she also keeps the company's options open: “If I decide I can do (a classic) I love and it has five characters, I'm game.”

Alice T. Carter is the theater critic for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-320-7808, acarter@tribweb.com or via Twitter @ATCarter_Trib.