GHOSTS is brought to the Lowry with a slow, painful unveiling of the truth that shocked today's audience in the same way it did theatregoers when it was first performed in 1881.

In this English Touring Theatre production of Ibsen's dark and foreboding play we are taken on a journey where to speak the truth causes pain and suffering to the whole family.

The action centres around the return of Osvald (Daniel Evans) to his mother Mrs Alving (Diana Quick) from a Bohemian life in Paris.

However, Osvald's return is disrupted by the presence of Pastor Manders, played with relish by William Chubb, whose hypocrisy and religious beliefs clash with Osvald's 'free living' ideals.

Ibsen deals with a range of issues and asks a number of questions, including the impact that parents have on their children's future and the constraints society places on people.

Using an imaginative set-design that brings Ibsen's ambitious stage directions to life, we are taken from rain clouds and darkness, into a rising sun that only brings pain.

This is not an uplifting play that will inspire loving thoughts, but a brooding piece of drama that draws you in to its dramatic climax.

And it is in the final scene that the play shows its power to shock and cause even today's modern audience to catch its breath, despite being over 120 years old.

Until Saturday, March 2.

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen at The Lowry, Salford.

(Also Blackpool Grand from March 12 to 16.)