GHOSTS

In 1881 Henrik Ibsen wrote this dark, disturbing but deeply insightful study of a woman in a man's world and the politics of patriarchy; a mirror to the world at large. On its staging it was decried as ''a loathsome sore unbandaged,'' ''revoltingly suggestive and blasphemous,'' and ''a foul and filthy concoction". It seemed the images in the mirror were too ugly for comfort.

But strangely the more things change, the more they remain the same. A world of societal oppression, religious bigotry, gender subjugation, sexual repression and the inescapable influence of our genetics seems like today's front-page headlines. The individual & the collective are still haunted by the 'Ghosts' of our dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs.