Pillars of the Community

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Play from 21 October 2005 to 4 February 2006

Lyttelton Theatre (National Theatre) South Bank, London

The National Theatre marks the centenary of Ibsen's death with a vital new version of the rarely performed thriller, Pillars of the Community.

Calamity strikes when Bernick's business prowess and pristine reputation are threatened by the revelation of a long-buried secret. Desperate to dodge exposure in the kowtowing local community, Bernick devises a pitiless plan which, by a shocking twist of fate, risks the one life he holds dear.

Pillars of the Community is set amid a society struggling against the rush of capitalism, the lure of America and the passionate beginnings of the fight for female emancipation.

Presented in a new version by Samuel Adamson and directed by Marianne Elliott.

"There is no playwright better than Ibsen at nailing the secrets, lies and evasions that rust our souls. His magnificent piece Pillars Of The Community, staged here for the first time in nearly 30 years, concerns the respectable Karsten Bernick, a successful shipbuilder and bigwig in some smallish Norwegian seaport... Marianne Elliott's excellent, taut production grips like a thriller... The star of the piece is Damian Lewis's tall, lean, sleek Bernick, striding masterfully around the stage, every inch a self-styled, superior being who believes he is entitled to operate in a different moral climate from everyone else." The Mail on Sunday

"This might be small-town Norway in the 1870s, but thanks to Samuel Adamson's earthy, just-picked translation and vibrant performances, this production is strikingly modern... Hypocrisy plays well on stage, and here every irony, every lie, every wriggle in the noose, is exposed under bright lights. As Bernick's certainties fall away, so too does Rae Smith's set, until just a couple of doors, a hat stand, a wall, are left to show the structures of respectability. Even at a time when a jaded public will cheerily presume the worst about its 'upstanding' figures, this clear-eyed dissection of a lie shows just how much the truth can hurt." The Sunday Times

"Ironic, illuminating and absorbing, Marianne Elliott's production of Ibsen's Pillars of the Community recovers a rarely seen play and makes it look new-minted. This is one of the best things to be staged at the National this year... Seeing it now, in Samuel Adamson's adroit and scathing translation, it's hard to understand why it's been away so long... The stage is lively with fine performances: Una Stubbs busy like an ant as the avid gossip; Brid Brennan beautifully resigned and dignified as a self-sacrificing spinster; Lesley Manville as the emancipated woman is bright as a bird of paradise, too acerbic ever to be simply noble... [Damian Lewis] a terrific performance." The Observer