Gosmersholm

In honour of Crows Theatre’s new production of Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, here is a newly discovered fragment that may represent the dramatist’s first attempt at depicting the haunted relationship of John Rosmer, Norwegian savant, and his mysterious house-guest Rebecca West.

Or - and perhaps more plausibly – it may be a revue sketch perpetrated by the young Robert Cushman, after attending a much-praised London production of Rosmersholm starring Dame Peggy Ashcroft, c. 1960. Though that play was its main inspiration, scholars have detected references to other Ibsen works and even, at one point, to T. S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion.

Originally written for a school production, the piece subsequently served as its author’s passport to membership of the Cambridge University Footlights, who included it in their 1964 revue and later took it to the Edinburgh Festival. It has also been given two separate airings on British television: how separate and how widely-spaced may be attested by the fact that the redoubtable Miriam Margolyes, who appeared in both of them, claimed while rehearsing the second to have no memory whatsoever of having been in the first.   

GOSMERSHOLM 
aka
FJORDSIDE NIGHTS

A nineteenth-century drawing-room. Dark. Gloomy. MRS SWEETHOLM, the family housekeeper, is looking out the window. INGRID EAST, a mysterious stranger, enters.

INGRID No sign of him yet, Mrs Sweetholm?

MRS S No, miss. It’s all this ice that does it.

INGRID Gosmersberg has always been a cold house.

MRS S Yes, miss. This house has seen a lot of cold in its time. And not just coldness of the body. Coldness of the heart, miss; coldness of the heart.

INGRID Isn’t that what killed the last Gosmer but three?

MRS S It’s supposed to have been, miss. Tragic family, the Gosmers.

INGRID The last but one fell off a high tower he was building, didn’t he?

MRS S That’s right, miss. The one before him died an idiot through congenital syphilis, and the last one had it easy; an avalanche got him.

INGRID I suppose there might be a family curse.

MRS S Oh no, miss, I shouldn’t think so. That kind of thing happens all the time in Norway.

INGRID I know it.

Pause

MRS S So do I.

Pause

INGRID Mrs Sweetholm…

MRS S Yes, miss?

INGRID Why do we spend our time telling each other what we already know?

MRS S (abruptly changing the subject) Oh look, miss, here comes Mr Gosmer, walking across the ice. I do wish he would walk more slowly. One of these days he’s going to fall right through the ice, and drown.

INGRID Do you think that’s likely?

MRS S Well, no-one in the family has done it yet. 

Enter JOHN GOSMER, liberal intellectual

JOHN Good day, Mrs Sweetholm. Good day, Miss East. Mrs Sweetholm, where is little Ulric?

MRS S He’s out ski-ing on the ice-clad slopes.

JOHN The brave little lad. I’m glad to see that his unfortunate disability does not prevent him from engaging in the healthy sports common to boys of his age. Will you fetch him for me?

MRS S Certainly, sir.

She goes out

INGRID Has Ulric a disability? What is it?

GOSMER He lisps. You’ve been living with us for six months. Haven’t you noticed?

INGRID No, John. But then little Ulric does not speak much. Why does little Ulric not speak much, John.

GOSMER (also abruptly changing the subject) That reminds me, Ingrid. I must talk to you. Will you sit down now, or will you wait for a moment of acute emotional stress

INGRID I think I’ll sit down now.

She does so

JOHN It’s a year now since my wife fell into the mill-race…

INGRID Oh, don’t drag up that old story again. Was it your fault she drowned

JOHN Yes, it was. If I hadn’t been such a reactionary stick-in-the-mud, I would have let her learn to swim. But I always said it was unwomanly. 

INGRID But, John, you have done penance for that. Under my guidance you have become the town’s leading radical. Why, when I first came here, you were the most respected man in the neighbourhood. Now, nobody talks to you.

JOHN Yes, Ingrid, and I am grateful to you. But it has not lifted the burden of guilt from my soul. Lying awake at night, I seem to see the body of my poor, drowned Gunhild, a look of accusation in her green, staring eyes. Sometimes I think that if it were not for little Ulric, I should join her at the bottom of that stream.

INGRID So little Ulric is all that is precious to you. What about me?

JOHN Oh, of course, Ingrid. Ulric is precious to me as the only memory of my poor dear Gunhild, but could he ever be to me what you are?

INGRID I should hope not. John…come away with me.

GOSMER Where?

INGRID Anywhere, to get away from this awful house with its depressing mid-Victorian furniture. How can anyone live in such an atmosphere? I cannot. I belong to the icy regions of the far north.

Enter MRS SWEETHOLM

MRS S Sir, I have terrible news.

JOHN I thought we were about due for some. What is it?

MRS S Dr. Krillstad will tell you. I could not bring myself to do it.

Enter DR KRILLSTAD, the embodiment of robust common sense

DR K I’m afraid I have some bad news for you, Gosmer. Your little Ulric is…

GOSMER Oh, no.

DR K What’s the use of saying “oh, no” when you know perfectly well it’s true. Young Ulric had an accident while out ski-ing on the ice-clad slopes. He got entangled while executing a particularly difficult jump, and fell with his left-hand ski firmly embedded in his skull. It’s not a pretty sight. I’m sorry to appear heartless, Gosmer, but I can’t help feeling that it was a judgment on you.

JOHN Mrs Sweetholm, Miss East, could you leave us alone for a moment? Perhaps you will be so good as to go and retrieve Ulric’s body.

DR K You can’t miss it.

The two women go out

JOHN Now, doctor, perhaps you will be so good as to explain what you mean by “a judgment on me”?

DR K Now look here, Gosmer, I’m a broad-minded man – we crusty, philosophical old doctors have to be – but you must tell me: what is Miss East’s exact position in your household?

JOHN She’s just a mysterious stranger. 

DR K That’s not good enough, Gosmer. Your private life is no concern of mine, so I’ve been making a few inquiries into it. I’m afraid Miss East is not quite what you think she is.

JOHN I think we must be using different translations.

DR K Don’t evade the issue, man. Miss East belongs to another line of your own family.

JOHN You mean…she’s a Gosmer, too?

DR K I do, indeed.

JOHN Fate…fate

DR K Gosmer, I don’t like the way you’re acting.

The women re-enter

INGRID John, I heard everything.

JOHN I might have known. Ingrid, you know what we must do now.

INGRID Yes, John. Let us face it…together.

They go out, hand in hand, looking straight ahead

DR K There’s something very strange about this house. Tell me, Mrs Sweetholm, has anybody shot any birds here recently?

MRS S Why, is that dangerous?

DR K It could be symbolic.

MRS S I don’t think so…Oh, yes, young Ulric shot a seagull. Is that symbolic?

DR K Not in Norway.

MRS S Well, at any rate, it seemed to upset him terribly. He came in, with tears in his eyes, and said “papa, why am I different from all the other little boys?”

DR K (who hasn’t been listening; looking out the window) Mrs Sweetholm what are those two doing?

MRS S (joining him) They’re walking across the ice, hand in hand, looking straight ahead of them. I do wish they would walk more slowly. There…they’ve fallen through the ice. I knew it would happen one day. And now, doctor, I think we two can shake hands over the dead.

DR K Why?

MRS S It makes a very effective final curtain.

It does.