GHOSTS Opens 22 May at Southbank Theatre

More than a hundred years since it alarmed censors, appalled critics and thrilled audiences Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts remains as sensational and electric as ever. Opening Thursday 22 May 2014 at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, internationally renowned Australian director Gale Edwards returns to MTC to direct this unflinching critique of marriage and social convention.

Currently the talk of the town in London, Ibsen's classic work will set the Melbourne stage alight in this new production featuring Edvard Munch inspired set and costume designs.

Linda Cropper and Philip Quast star in this gripping revival of Ibsen's masterpiece about a wronged wife alongside Pip Edwards, Ben Pfeiffer and Richard Piper.

Pastor Manders has come to Mrs Alving's home to discuss the opening of an orphanage in her late husband's name, permanently honouring his goodness and generosity. For Mrs Alving, however, the dedication will be the final great lie in a marriage filled with lies. As the façade begins to shatter, Mrs Alving is forced to reveal the truth about her husband's secret indiscretions, in a desperate attempt to exorcise the ghosts of her past and save her son Oswald.

'The power of Ibsen's writing,' said Director Gale Edwards, 'is his ability to give the lives of women the weight that the Greeks gave their tragic male heroes. Mrs Alving in Ghosts is one of Ibsen's most intriguing and tragic characters, a complex, majestic, vulnerable, fortified woman at the centre of the play whose world comes crashing down.'

Gale Edwards' outstanding career spans 30 years of directing theatre, opera and musicals nationally and internationally. Her previous productions for MTC include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hitchcock Blonde, M Buttefly and Uncle Vanya. Other directing credits include the highly acclaimed original version of The Boy from Oz, Eureka, The Rocky Horror Show, Snow on Mars, Jerry Springer: The Opera and God of Carnage. For seven years Edwards was Andrew Lloyd Webber's chief collaborator, directing productions of Whistle Down the Wind, Aspects of Love and Jesus Christ Superstar. She was the first Australian to direct on the mainstage at the Royal Shakespeare Company and to open a musical on both the West End and Broadway.

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is known as the master of modern European drama, whose enduringly topical plays continue to be staged in all parts of the world. From works such as Peer Gynt, that reinterpreted Scandinavian mythology for the modern sensibility, to his mature plays such as A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People and The Wild Duck, Ibsen created stage characters that undermined the certainty of society. For this reason, while many of his plays scandalised the public and were subsequently banned across Europe, he became a major influence for both the symbolic and the realistic streams of twentieth century drama.

Cast Linda Cropper, Pip Edwards, Ben Pfeiffer, Richard Piper, and Philip Quast.

Director Gale Edwards; Set & Costume Designer Shaun Gurton; Lighting Designer Paul Jackson; Composer & Sound Designer Russell Goldsmith

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