John Gabriel Borkman is a 1896 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was his penultimate work.
In 2010, a revival of the play was performed in the Abbey Theatre as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival. In a new version by Frank McGuinness directed by James Macdonald, it featured actor Alan Rickman as John Gabriel Borkman, Fiona Shaw as his wife Gunhild and Lindsay Duncan as Ella. The play had previously been performed in the Abbey Theatre in 1928. In 2011, the production moved to New York and received mixed reviews.
John Gabriel Borkman is a deep and somber drama by Henrik Ibsen that explores human ambition, downfall, and the loss of illusions. In 2010, Alan Rickman brought the central character, the once-powerful banker John Gabriel Borkman, to life on stage in Dublin, later moving to London. Rickman’s portrayal of Borkman, a man who has lost everything due to his ambitions and corruption, was profound and haunting.
Rickman created a character consumed by his past dreams, yet still trapped by them, even years after his fall from grace. His Borkman was weary but unbroken, living in isolation within his home, wandering through cold, empty corridors like a ghost of his former self. His voice was deep, tinged with disdain, and filled with bitterness and unfulfilled hopes. Even in moments of despair, he maintained a certain cold dignity, a hallmark of many of his roles.
Particularly striking were the scenes of confrontation between Borkman and the two women in his life—his wife Gunhild and her sister Ella, whom he once loved but sacrificed for his career. In these exchanges, Rickman masterfully balanced pride, anger, and pain, gradually revealing his character’s inner emptiness. Borkman was not just a ruined financier; he was a man who had come to realize he had lost not only his wealth but the meaning of his life.
The climactic scene, where Borkman, having left his home, attempts to breathe in the fresh air of freedom only to meet death, was delivered with astonishing emotional depth. Rickman didn’t play it dramatically—he let his character dissolve into the cold landscape, with death being the inevitable end of his lonely existence.
This performance further solidified Alan Rickman’s genius as a stage actor. His portrayal of Borkman was both poignant and tragic, leaving the audience with a sense of bitter regret and the inevitability of fate.
