BBC 4 Radio Woman’s Hour: Helen McCrory Talks About Rosmersholm

On May 30, 2008May 27, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

As Rebecca West in Ibsen’s Rosmersholm

BBC 4 Radio Woman’s Hour | May 30, 2008

The actress Helen McCrory has been acclaimed for her talent and her range: as one journalist put it, “not many actresses can say that they have played Cherie Blair, Lady Macbeth and Anna Karenina”. She is now in the Ibsen play “Rosmersholm” at the Almeida Theatre in London. The play is not the best known of Ibsen’s work and is the story of Rosmer, a former pastor and pillar of society, whose wife has committed suicide. Her companion, Rebecca West, has stayed at Rosmersholm and she and Rosmer become inspired by radical idealism. Helen McCrory joins Sheila to talk about the role and her life.

Listen here.

Rosmersholm is at the Almeida Theatre in London until 5th July

Reviews Rosmersholm

Rosmersholm at the Almeida – Review

On May 26, 2008April 30, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory and Paul Hilton star in a fascinating and complex play that was a favourite of Freud

by Benedict Nightingale | May 26, 2008 | The Times

At times Rosmersholm seems the most modern of Ibsen’s plays, at times the most dauntingly complex. Either way, Anthony Page’s revival maintains its grip, largely because Helen McCrory and Paul Hilton generate a quiet, unpretentious intensity while obeying the dramatist’s own orders: “No declamation, no theatricalities, express every mood in a way that seems credible and natural.”

Hilton’s Rosmer is a pastor who has lost his faith. He’s also the scion of an influential family and, as such, both a magnet and a target for his community’s warring factions. Indeed, it’s his floundering attempts to maintain a degree of idealism and become a reconciler and peacemaker that make him recognisable today. He manages to alienate both Malcolm Sinclair’s ferociously reactionary Kroll and Peter Sullivan’s Mortensgaard, the radical who aims to exploit his social and religious status. He’s that sorry figure, a piggy in the middle.

Continue reading Rosmersholm at the Almeida – Review

Reviews Rosmersholm

Rosmersholm at the Almeida – Review

On May 23, 2008April 30, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Spellbinding Performances

by Michael Billington | May 23, 2008 | The Guardian

The Ibsen boom continues. And it is a measure of our theatre’s confidence in dealing with the old Norwegian ironist that even a dark, difficult late play like this can be bathed, both in Anthony Page’s production and Mike Poulton’s new translation, in such physical and psychological light.

More than most of Ibsen’s plays, this one is about the weight of the past. Rosmer, a former pastor, is oppressed by a whole series of factors: his conservative ancestry, guilt over his wife’s suicide and loss of religious faith. But, aided by his companion, Rebecca West, he believes he can set out on a new path of missionary idealism. This, however, turns out to be a fond dream as he alienates his allies, becomes a subject of scandal, and as Rebecca turns out to be haunted by incestuous demons.

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Damian Lewis Flashbacks of a Fool Interviews Personal and Family Life Print Media Rosmersholm

Helen McCrory: The Importance of Being Sex

On April 12, 2008May 13, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory likes to speak her mind. A lot.

by Maureen Patton | April 12, 2008 | Daily Mail

Helen McCrory

Hold on to your hats as the natural heir to Judi Dench and Maggie Smith spells out exactly why she won’t do stage and screen nudity.

“I don’t want to sign for a job that I have to have a bikini wax for,” says Helen, who persuaded the director of BBC’s 2003 drama series Charles II to ditch the full-frontals before she would agree to play the sexually voracious Countess of Castlemaine.

For as she puts it, “sex is all in the brain”.

Life’s not all froth for award-winning actress Helen McCrory. Married to handsome actor Damian Lewis, she appears to have it all…

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