The notices for Ghosts are warm, though not unanimous. Richard Eyre’s 90-minute version of Henrik Ibsen’s drama, first seen at the Almeida in 2013, has been revived at the Jermyn Street Theatre by Kwame Owusu, with Flora Montgomery as a widow whose buried secrets surface as she prepares to open an orphanage in her late husband’s name. West End Best Friend gives it five stars and most of the trade and online press four, praising the intimacy of the 70-seat room and a closing scene two critics found almost unbearable to watch; BroadwayWorld is the dissenter, finding a conventional staging carried by its leading lady. Nearly every critic, the dissenter included, singles out Montgomery.
The verdict: nine reviews in so far: one five-star notice, five at four stars and one at three, plus two outlets that publish no rating. Among those that score, the average is 4.0 out of 5. The critics differ on how much the staging adds, but nearly all of them single out Flora Montgomery’s Helene Alving.
What are critics saying about GHOSTS?
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Phil Meikle
The most enthusiastic notice so far. Phil Meikle praises the economy of Richard Eyre’s 90-minute text and the care with which Kwame Owusu fits it into the 70-seat room, and he finds the whole company strong from the first scene.
“This production is quite simply pure exhilaration and a joy to behold.”
He saves his warmest words for Joe Pitts, whose Oswald he calls electric, and for a closing stretch he describes as almost too painful to watch.
The Arts Desk
"Richard Eyre's speedy version of Ibsen's family drama makes a gripping return"
Reviewer: Heather Neill
Heather Neill argues that the theatre’s close quarters sharpen the play’s attack on hypocrisy, and she credits Owusu with a final scene between mother and son that builds to an almost unbearable pitch.
“Flora Montgomery is superb as Helene, her creamy, genteel exterior masking a steely spirit…”
Her one reservation is a staging problem: the moment Helene and Manders overhear Oswald and Regina has to share the same small space, and she notes that the lighting does the work of separating them.
The Reviews Hub
"A great revival"
Reviewer: Sam Muna
Sam Muna reads the evening as a study in double standards and duty, and admires how the dark wooden set seems to swallow the light around the family.
“Director Kwame Owusu draws out the play’s slow‑burn tension with precision, allowing each revelation to land with bruising clarity.”
The conclusion: the play has lost none of its urgency, and this revival shows why it still deserves an audience.
LondonTheatre1
"A faithful rendering of this intense and powerful play."
Reviewer: Chris Omaweng
Chris Omaweng values the production’s restraint: it plays naturalistically rather than as melodrama, so that when the emotion finally breaks it reads as release rather than excess.
“By and large, this production does this Ibsen classic justice…”
He also points out that some of the plot has dated, the orphanage especially, while the choice Helene faces at the end would now carry legal as well as moral weight.
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Daz Gale
Daz Gale thinks the evening starts sluggishly and that the trimmed text leaves the ending a little rushed, but he says it gathers speed and gets better as it goes.
“Joe Pitts is utterly compelling as Oswald Alving, arriving with full confidence in a cocksure portrayal…”
He calls Montgomery the performance that dominates the production, and judges the staging safer than last year’s contemporary version at the Lyric Hammersmith but no less thrilling.
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Cindy Marcolina
The dissenting voice. Cindy Marcolina finds an old-fashioned period staging that never settles on an identity of its own, and she thinks the near-silent scene work leaves the stage traffic flat.
“Expressive and emotive, Montgomery is magnetic. Her unflinching portrayal carries the project, swiftly becoming its beating heart.”
Montgomery is the exception she makes. She rates the supporting company adequate and judges the revival pleasant in the space but short of what recent versions of the play have achieved.
Camden New Journal
"Adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1881 play is a taut 90 minutes as revelations and suppressed desires emerge"
Reviewer: Lucy Popescu
Lucy Popescu, whose review also ran in the Westminster Extra and the Islington Tribune, calls Owusu’s production confident and finds the cramped stage and dark panelling deepen the sense of a family closing in on itself.
“It’s striking how relevant Ibsen’s exposure of hypocrisy and keeping up appearances still feels.”
She picks out a pompous Pastor Manders from Oliver Alvin-Wilson and a nuanced Oswald from Pitts. The paper publishes no star rating.
Notes From Row H
Reviewer: Helena Featherstone
Helena Featherstone finds nothing dated in the drama and rates the whole company highly: Montgomery for the anguish she lets show beneath Helene’s composure, and Alvin-Wilson for a Manders who is as infuriating as he is fascinating.
“Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen is a gripping exploration of family secrets, social hypocrisy and the consequences of trying to bury the past.”
She credits Cara Evans’ panelled set and Ben Ormerod’s lighting with tightening the claustrophobia over its 90 minutes. The site publishes no star rating.
Production photographs by David Monteith-Hodge.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Holly O’Mahony, four stars, "Stark double standards between the genders"), whose review sits behind a registration wall.
For more on the production, see the casting announcement and our first production photos from press day. Elsewhere this week, the critics have also had their say on The Cherry Orchard at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
Ghosts runs at Jermyn Street Theatre until 14 November 2026.
