Lady Inger at The Space

I am not a great Ibsen fan but I keep going to see his plays! That is because they are good enough, in their way, and I still feel that it is an important body of work to consume for anyone who takes the theatre at all seriously.

I am, however, something of a fan of the production company ottisdotter and of small quirky theatres in out of the way places, theatres like The Space on the Isle of Dogs. My only other visit to The Space was back in 2016 (!) to see another ottisdotter production, Emilla Galotti.

All that was more than enough to get me to invest £12.5 in a ticket.

I took the opportunity of being on the far side of London to make something of a day of it and having first seen Vincent River at Greenwich Theatre I walked through the Greenwich foot tunnel and through Mudchute Park and Farm to get to The Space.

My timing was good and I was able to enjoy a decent pint of beer and a good cheese sandwich in the nicely quirky bar upstairs before the show. It's things like that which make theatre going even more than a treat than it normally is.

The theatre space is a hall and this was set up with two banks of seats, in something like a diamond pattern, around the performance area where the only props on view were a table and two chairs. 

I sat in the middle and took this photo from the entrance during the interval.

The play started off as a geopolitical drama. Lady Inger is partly based on a true story in 1500s Norway where she is a widow living in an isolated castle off the coast of Trondheim and is the last remaining vestige of Norway’s national identity. She has to contend with occupying Swedes and untrustworthy Danes.

Some visitors come to her castle proposing alliances, making threats and suggesting husbands for her daughter. It was good ebb and flow stuff and despite knowing nothing of the history I was hooked.

I got another beer in the interval.

In the second half the political intrigue and tensions got closer to home and both Lady Inger's daughter and a son became heavily involved in other people's plans.

The play ended with Lady Inger screaming on the floor.

Kristin Duffy as Lady Inger was a powerful presence throughout. Ivan Comisso also impressed as Nils Lykke a Danish nobleman. The other cast members were not eclipsed and it was a skilful performance. 

Lady Inger was set in a time and place I did not know but the themes were familiar enough and the story  was gripping. Not an easy watch but a rewarding one.