Henrik Ibsen, 19th century Norwegian playwright, is best known for his 1857 play “A Doll’s House,” which holds the title as one of the most performed plays in the world. Feeling the need to get in on the game, The Old Globe theatre in Balboa Park is carrying out its own adaptation.
Meet Nora Helmer (played by Gretchen Hall), a woman with a hazy past and some bad decision-making skills. Years after making an illegal financial decision in order to save her dying husband, the past comes catching up to her. Nora is torn apart by her husband Torvald (Fred Arsenault), her perpetrator Krogstad and ultimately, herself. The play’s controversial ending and Nora’s road to self-discovery led to its title as one of the first feminist dramas in history. Perhaps it is for this reason that many audience members appear to be die-hard feminists. They practically went wild when Nora told Torvald to suck it ( of course, in a proper manner) at the story’s end.
Kudos go to Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey’s translation of the Norwegian play. She worked with director Kristen Brandt to modernize the play — her version is direct and leaves out much of the stuffing of the original.
As a part of The Old Globe’s “Classics Up Close” series, this new adaptation takes place in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, a “theatre in the round” auditorium — the audience surrounds the center stage and concaves slightly. With each row no more than five rows from the stage, the theater sets up an intimate environment that makes the audience members feel as if they are a part of, rather than separate from, the action.
The choice of cast was ingenious: Gretchen Hall and Fred Arsenault’s chemistry as Nora and Torvald was the highlight of last week’s performance. Considering that in this play, a woman borrowing a loan without her husband’s consent is as scandalous as it gets, it is the dynamics between the actors and the characters they portray that really brings the play to life.
Nora and Torvald’s lustful infatuation with each other is intensified in this version. Their kisses just 10 minutes into the play were not the stiff, awkward ones you see in the movies. For a drama written in 1879, those kisses were salacious. After sitting through a couple of their hot-make out sessions, awkwardness seeped through the audience like an intruder during an intimate coupling. The sensuality between the two main characters was a clear indication that the actors who played them were married.
Yes, a real-life married couple acting as a married couple. For their first performance together as a married couple, the two main actors got it down.
Hall and Arsenault’s acting was the highlight of the play. However, two members of the supporting cast — Richard Baird and Nis Sturgis (portraying Nils Krogstad and Mrs. Kristine Linde, respectively) — did not fare as well. Baird’s seemingly emotional gushing toward the end of the play felt rehearsed and scripted when compared to the dynamic main couple. His shift from being the bad guy to being the misunderstood schlep in the span of one conversation did not bring about any sympathetic, warm feelings. Rather, Krogstad’s reconciling encounter with Mrs. Kristine Linde only tidied up the plot and interrupted Hall and Arsenault’s time on stage.
In addition, the sound effects were a little bewildering. The sounds of the ocean waves felt completely out of place in the Victorian-style living room setting with the European bourgeois feel. The sound was used to mark the beginning and end of each segment of the play. They should’ve gone with a Christmas jingle, which would have been more appropriate for the subject of the play. The ocean waves were an artistic move gone wrong.
Nevertheless, the timeless themes of marriage, love, money and identity allowed Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” to breach the language and time barriers. Surely, Ibsen had not known that the witty humor he carried out would last to this day. The play is ever-changing — there are times when it is humorous, sad, happy, humdrum, exciting and a variety of other emotions. Love may not come to mind for everyone seeing this play, but it is definitely a worthwhile experience.
