Ibsen's Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy by Charles Busch (review)

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• Ibsen's Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasyby Charles Busch
• Benjamin Gillespie

IBSEN'S GHOST: AN IRRESPONSIBLE BIO-GRAPHICAL FANTASY. By Charles Busch. Directed by Carl Andress. Primary Stages, 59E59 Theaters, New York. 03 3, 2024.

Not to be confused with Ibsen's Ghosts, Ibsen's Ghost—sardonically advertised as "the play Ibsen never wrote!"—was exactly what it promised in its subtitle: an irresponsible biographical fantasy of Ibsen's life. This is a revisionist history play that treats its subject matter with admiration along with a heavy dose of camp schtick. In Ibsen's Ghost, playwright Charles Busch draws out the humor already extant in Ibsen's serious dramas of social conscience to the delight of audiences while also retaining the sensibility of an Ibsen play with its characteristic exposition and well-made structure.

An iconic performer and female impersonator, Busch has long been a staple of New York's downtown theatre scene. He has written and starred in more than twenty-five plays, including The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom(one of the longest-running plays in off-Broadway history). Busch pulls from an extensive knowledge of theatre history, canonical plays, and Hollywood film to write and perform satiric, melodramatic fictions that position Busch himself as the leading lady. To this point, in 2023, Busch released his much-anticipated Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy, which documents his upbringing and history as a performer in exquisite detail (including an audiobook version recorded by Busch himself).

As a female impersonator, Busch has been unmatched since the early days of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company. Inspired by Ludlam's performances of strong female protagonists, Busch takes seriously his portrayals of these roles (tellingly, the understudy for Busch's role in Ibsen's Ghostwas actress Kate Hampton). Unlike performers in traditional drag, Busch wants to be taken seriously as a female actor, rather than simply undermining or satirizing the women he plays: he wants them to be perceived respectfully even at their most ridiculous moments. This context is important for Ibsen's Ghost: while Busch certainly wants to be funny, he also wants to find the real emotional life of his character, Ibsen's widow Susannah. Significantly, Busch is also much more attendant to Ibsen's actual biography than Cole Escola is about Mary Todd Lincoln in the blockbuster hit Oh, Mary!While not all details are accurate, Busch makes an effort to be moderately close to the truth. In contrast, Escola regularly claims they did "less than no research" on Lincoln, demonstrating their related but contrasting styles. (Escola and Busch have been closely compared in a number of popular reviews as their productions ran concurrently.)

The plot of Ibsen's Ghostis relatively straightforward: After Ibsen's death, his widow Susannah (Busch) learns that his former protégée is in town spreading a libelous diary that reveals the playwright's misdeeds. Determined to protect her husband's legacy, she enlists the help of her sharp-witted stepmother (Judy Kaye), Ibsen's long-lost illegitimate son (Thomas Gibson), a servant girl with a wayward pelvis (Jen Cody), and an enigmatic rodent exterminator known as the Rat Wife (Christopher Borg). Together, they embark on a mission to preserve Ibsen's reputation by any means necessary.

Susannah first arrives onstage a week after Ibsen's funeral dressed all in black, but she is more jovial than we might expect she would be following her husband's death. She wants to give Ibsen's longtime publisher (also played by Borg) permission to print Ibsen's letters sent to her over the course of their marriage in order to make money and highlight her own supposed influence on the great writer's work. The problem is that the letters aren't that interesting. Enter Hanna (Jennifer Van Dyck), one of Ibsen's past lovers, announcing that she plans to print her own sordid diaries that elucidate her love affair with Ibsen and confirm she inspired the role of Nora Helmer. However, Susannah believes that she herself is the inspiration for the feminist icon. It is this conflict that advances the plot...