Reviewed by:

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

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...

 校订者：

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  易卜生的幽灵：查尔斯·布什 （Charles Busch） 的不负责任的传记幻想
•  本杰明·吉莱斯皮

不要与易卜生的《鬼魂》相混淆——被讽刺地宣传为“易卜生从未写过的剧本！“——正是它在副标题中承诺的：对易卜生生平的不负责任的传记幻想。这是一部修正主义的历史剧，它以钦佩的方式对待其主题，并带有大量的坎普诡计。在《易卜生的幽灵》中，剧作家查尔斯·布什 （Charles Busch） 将易卜生关于社会良知的严肃戏剧中已经存在的幽默引向观众，同时也保留了易卜生戏剧的敏感性，以其独特的阐述和精心制作的结构。

作为标志性的表演者和女性模仿者，Busch 长期以来一直是纽约市中心剧院界的主打产品。他编写并主演了超过 25 部戏剧，包括 The Divine Sister、The Lady in Question 和 Vampire Lesbians of Sodom（非百老汇历史上上演时间最长的戏剧之一）。Busch 利用对戏剧历史、经典戏剧和好莱坞电影的广泛了解，编写和表演讽刺、情节剧小说，将 Busch 本人定位为女主角。为此，在 2023 年，Busch 发布了他备受期待的 Leading Lady： A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy，其中详细记录了他作为表演者的成长经历和历史（包括 Busch 本人录制的有声读物版本）。

作为一名女性模仿者，Busch 自 Charles Ludlam 的 Ridiculous Theatrical Company 成立以来就无与伦比。受到 Ludlam 对坚强女性主角的表演的启发，Busch 认真对待他对这些角色的刻画（很明显，Busch 在易卜生的鬼魂中的替补是女演员凯特·汉普顿）。与传统变装表演者不同，Busch 希望作为女演员被认真对待，而不是简单地贬低或讽刺他扮演的女性：他希望即使在最荒谬的时刻也能被尊重地看待她们。这个背景对易卜生的《幽灵》很重要：虽然布施当然想搞笑，但他也想找到他笔下的角色——易卜生的遗孀苏珊娜——真实的情感生活。值得注意的是，布希对易卜生的实际传记的关注也比科尔·埃斯科拉 （Cole Escola） 在大片《哦，玛丽！虽然并非所有细节都准确，但 Busch 努力适度接近真相。相比之下，Escola 经常声称他们对林肯“几乎没有研究”，展示了他们相关但对比鲜明的风格。（Escola 和 Busch 在许多热门评论中被仔细比较，因为他们的作品同时进行。

易卜生的鬼魂的情节相对简单：易卜生死后，他的遗孀苏珊娜（布什饰）得知他的前门生在城里散布一本诽谤日记，揭露了剧作家的恶行。决心保护丈夫的遗产，她寻求了机智的继母（朱迪·凯饰）、易卜生失散多年的私生子（托马斯·吉布森饰）、骨盆任性的女仆（珍·科迪饰）和被称为鼠妻的神秘啮齿动物灭绝者（克里斯托弗·博格饰）。他们一起开始了一项使命，不惜一切代价维护易卜生的声誉。

苏珊娜在易卜生的葬礼一周后首次登台，身着一身黑衣，但她比我们想象的她在丈夫去世后要快活。她想允许易卜生的长期出版商（也由博格扮演）打印易卜生在婚姻期间寄给她的信件，以赚钱并突出她自己对这位伟大作家作品的所谓影响。问题是这些字母并不那么有趣。易卜生过去的情人之一汉娜（詹妮弗·范·戴克饰）宣布她计划出版自己的肮脏日记，阐明她与易卜生的恋情，并证实她启发了诺拉·海尔默这个角色。然而，Susannah 认为她自己就是这位女权主义偶像的灵感来源。正是这种冲突推动了情节的发展......