This acclaimed show, starring Lesley Manville, sold out at the Almeida before transferring to the Trafalgar Studios where it played to packed houses, extending its original run due to popular demand. Ghosts is currently nominated for five Olivier Awards; Best Actress, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Lighting Design, Best Director and Best Revival.
Reinforcing the calibre of the entire WEST END THEATRE SERIES, previous productions in the series Merrily We Roll Along and Private Lives have both been recognised with a combined eleven Olivier Award nominations.
At the 2013 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Richard Eyre was named Best Director for Ghosts. Lesley Manville won the 2013 Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance as Helene Alving.
The universally praised cast of Ghosts also includes Adam Kotz, Jack Lowden, Brian McCardie and Charlene McKenna. Lowden and McKenna were recently nominated for the Ian Charleston Award for their performances in Ghosts. The award recognises outstanding performances by actors under 30 in classic roles. Lowden is now also nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The 2014 Olivier Awards will be presented this Sunday (14 April) at the Royal Opera House.
The WEST END THEATRE SERIES is captured live in High Definition by Digital Theatre and distributed by CinemaLive.
Helene Alving has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father. But on his return from his life as a painter in France, Oswald reveals how he has already inherited the legacy of his father’s dissolute life.
Multi award-winning theatre, film and television actor Lesley Manville was last on stage in Grief at the National Theatre, where she has previously been seen in Her Naked Skin, Pillars of the Community, The Alchemist and His Dark Materials. Other theatre credits include Six Degrees of Separation and All About My Mother at the Old Vic, Top Girls, Serious Money, The Pope’s Wedding and Three Sisters at the Royal Court and for the Royal Shakespeare Company she has been seen in The Wives’ Excuse, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and As You Like It. On screen, Lesley has regularly collaborated with Mike Leigh in films including Another Year, All or Nothing, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies and High Hopes. Her other film credits include The Christmas Candle, Molly Moon, Maleficent, Romeo and Juliet, Spike Island and A Christmas Carol. On television her credits include An Adventure in Space and Time, The Man Who Would Be Bond, Mayday, Cranford, North and South, Bodily Harm, Other Peoples' Children, Promoted To Glory, The Cazalets, David Copperfield, Painted Lady, The Bite, Holding On, Tears Before Bedtime, A Statement of Affairs, Top Girls, Grown-Ups and The Firm.
Richard Eyre’s credits at the Almeida include The Dark Earth and the Light Sky, David Hare’s The Judas Kiss - his first production after leaving the National Theatre where he was Director from 1988 - 1997 - The Novice and Hedda Gabler. His more recent work as a director for the stage includes the award-winning production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible on Broadway, the world premieres of Nicholas Wright’s Vincent in Brixton and The Reporter both for the National Theatre, Noël Coward’s Private Lives on Broadway and the musical Mary Poppins. Most recently he directed Stephen Ward The Musical currently running at the Aldwych Theatre, Quartermaine’s Terms at the Wyndham’s Theatre and The Pajama Game for Chichester Festival Theatre which transfers to the Shaftesbury Theatre in May. For television his credits include Changing Stages - a BBC Series on the history of theatre in the 20th century, which he co-wrote with Nicholas Wright and presented and the BAFTA award-winning Tumbledown. Eyre recently directed the critically-acclaimed Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 for the BBC’s 2012 Shakespeare Season. His film credits include Iris, Stage Beauty, Notes on a Scandal and The Other Man.
Ghosts was produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions and the Almeida Theatre with Rupert Gavin, Tanya Link Productions and JFL Theatricals/GHF Productions in association with 1001 Nights.
Screenings of Richard Eyre’s five-star production of Ibsen’s Ghosts is in UK cinemas for one night only, Thursday 26th June 2014. Tickets are on sale now.
For more information, ticketing and participating cinemas in the UK and Ireland please visit www.westendtheatreseries.com (from 11th April, 9am)