A Doll's House: So Long, Dearie

Helene Kvale's new version of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House begins with Nora in a vertiginously angled, boxy, padded space (a marvelously realized set by Mike Billings).  She's dressed in a simple shift, standing with a nurse, leading the audience to believe that Nora has ended in an asylum of some kind, and the rest of the play is her nostalgic reverie.  It's an interesting idea, considering that the real-life story of Laura Keller, upon which Ibsen based his play, ended with her husband divorcing her and Laura having a nervous breakdown and committing suicide in an asylum. And it certainly points up all the times that Nora is referred to as "mad".  However, the theatrical conceit is dropped after Act II (around the time there's a scene without Nora in it), and anyway Nora leaves the space at the end of the play- she doesn't finish the play there, Torvald does.  It may be the director's conceit is that everyone in the play is insane- in this production, that's certainly a valid opinion.  But to consider that Nora might end up catatonic in some institution because of her brave ideas somewhat negates the themes of the play.  

Everyone in the play is dressed to match the dreary and oppressive set, all in greys and browns, except for Nora, whose costumes become gradually pinker, until she shows up in bright red, and then finally in a smart white minidress for her final scene (great costumes by Lucy Brown).  Judging from the postcard (which otherwise has nothing to do with the production), I assume this was some sort of menstruation metaphor, though this was unclear.

Also unclear is Ms. Kvale's "new version" of the play.  Is it limited to the spare staging, or did she retranslate it herself? (No other translator is listed.)  The press materials state, "In this original contemporary adaptation, A Doll's House fuses magical realism with gritty reality where nothing is as it seems… Nora flies and the doll's house burns."  There was no flying, and although an onstage dollhouse (which was used as a stove) had electric candles in its windows, there was nothing so symbolic and wacky as, for example, Marge's production of Streetcar! on The Simpsons.  The costumes suggest the 1930s and a mention of dollars suggests America, although the language is just as stilted and formal as most other English translations of the play, and with the non-representational set, it might just as well have been Norway.  The back wall is made of paper (much like a Japanese door) and frequently shadows of people are cast on the back wall- this is sometimes effective, but more often confusing (are they being overheard?  Are there people outside?).

The keeping of a Secret is very important to the script; unfortunately it's also an important element of Farce- often this production slips into apparently unintentional humor.

Heddy Lahmann plays up Nora's childish qualities, bouncing around the stage like a rubber ball, sometimes nearly leaving the stage (Movement by Greg Webster).  She's somewhat reminiscent of Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City at times, which would make Torvald her Mister Big; as played by Luke Daniels, he's a suited, plastic icon of a man- a paternal Ken Doll.  Peter Mutino is convincingly desperate as Krogstad. Nathan Caron is a fine Dr. Rank.  Hillary Parker, as Kristine, is the best thing about the production- she plays the role as something as an anthropologist; sober and calm and observant, she's pretty much the only sane person onstage, and seems to be in a different (more interesting) play than everyone else.  Her one-on-one scene with Mutino is a highlight of the play for both.

The play was provocative and shocking when it first premiered, but here nothing goes far enough to jolt us into a sense that it's anything more than a quaint museum piece.

A Doll's House
Gene Frankel Theatre
24 Bond St. New York, NY.
Wednesday – Monday at 7:30 PM.
Matinees are on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 PM.
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.theatermania.com or by calling 212.352.3101.

Photos by Gerry Goodstein.

1. Heddy Lahman and Peter Mutino
2. Heddy Lahman and Hillary Parker

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