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A Doll’s House by Henrick Ibsen
THERE is nothing easy about Henrick Ibsens’s most frequently performed play A Doll’s House.
Written in 1879, pre dating Freud by more than a decade (and Eric Berne’s 60s pop psychology cult book Games People Play by 85 years) the play was a sensation from the first performance. Not only did it turn the idea of the “well formed play” on its head, but it flew against the accepted conventions of romantic love and the sanctity of marriage.
It is based in the home of the Helmers, a couple who have struggled during their eight-year marriage with ill health and difficult financial times, but whose star seems to be in the ascendant with Torvald Helmer’s new job at the head of the bank.
It’s Christmas and Nora Helmer has been shopping, returning all of a fluster laden with presents, when an old friend turns up unexpectedly, a widow needing a job, and Nora asks Torvald to find employment for her.
But as luck would have it, the job he identifies for the woman involves sacking Krogstad, a man who has a secret financial hold over Nora.
The critical aspect of this play, flagged up by its name, is that Torvald treats his wife as a plaything, addressing her as “lark” or “squirrel” – and she is used to playing along.
It’s not until the denouement that she realises he is not the warm, dependable, all-protective figure she thought, but a self-obsessed and arrogant man.She has allowed herself to go along with the pretence, from father to husband, all her life, and, realising it, she cannot return to not knowing what she does know - and she leaves.
Churchill Productions once again invited Pete Talman to direct the show, on stage at the Tivoli in Wimborne last week, and again he brought multi-layered insight to the piece.
He decided to set the story in the 1950s, that post-war time when women were beginning to speak up for themselves and socieity’s norms were being questioned at the end of the war. And in theory (and fashion) it worked very well, but there were times when the language jarred with the setting.
Actresses have picked up awards for their reading of Nora ever since A Doll’s House had its premiere, and sadly Jan Wyld won’t be up for a national or international prize.
What she did that I have never seen before was to make the nicknames absolutely right. When the pompous Torvald called her Squirrel, she looked and moved like a bushy tailed tree rodent. When he called her lark she swooped and tweeted.
But when his back was turned she was wracked with fear of exposure, and when she saw his overweening self interest exhibited in an angry scene, her shock and pain were palpable. It was another brilliant performance from this astonishingly versatile actress.
Mark Ritchie captured Torvald to perfection – demanding, patronising, totally self-absorbed with no understanding of his wife as a person, just a sweet possession.
Frances Aspinal made the widow Kristine more sentitive and intelligent than is sometimes done.
Graham Haigh as the ailing and besotted Dr Rank, and particularly the complex character of Krogstad as portrayed by Andy Oldfield could have been better delivered vocally. Both men seemed to speak in stunted bursts, but they will probably have relaxed as the run continues.
It was a compelling interpretation of this classic play, and another triumph for Jan Wyld, who regularly proves that she can wipe the stage with more feted professional performers.
GP-W
