Director Elin Schofield has described Chris Bush's adaptation of Ibsen's remarkable play as "true to the original", but as if a layer of dust has been excavated from it. Bush herself tells us that her intention was "to make something clean and emotionally truthful, scrubbing away extraneous 19th century waffle that stops us understanding who these people are."
The story was revolutionary for its time but resounds with issues relevant to a 21st century audience. Nora has been in an apparently happy relationship with her husband Torvald for eight years and is looking forward to a happy Christmas with their three lovely children in their beautifully refurbished family home. An unexpected visitor arrives who rakes up the past and is instrumental in making Nora re-evaluate everything about her role as a wife and member of a male-dominated society.
The visitor is Krogstag, an employee in Torvald's Bank and social outcast for a crime committed many years ago. The two remaining characters who make a significant contribution to Nora's radical transformation are Dr Rank, a family friend and regular visitor, who is anticipating his imminent death, and Christina, a childhood friend of Nora's, impoverished, childless and alone who urges Nora to face up to the truth of her relationship with Torvald and the nature of the society she is living in.
What impresses most about this production is the depth of characterisation achieved by every member of the cast. It is almost unbearable to watch Siena Kelly as Nora cavorting around as Torvald's simpering doll-wife, hiding her macaroons because Torvald has forbidden her to eat sweet things, and responding without objection to being called "my little song bird", "my little squirrel" and so forth. Later in the action, she performs an increasingly frenetic tarantella in a desperate effort to prevent Torvald opening a crucial letter, but at the end of the play is transformed into a serious, mature, independent woman who can face up to the reality of her relationship with her husband and her potential treatment under the law in a male-dominated society.
The same depth of characterisation is evident in Tom Glenister's performance as Torvald. This is a controlling husband who asserts rules and enforces them harshly. When he catches Nora eating the forbidden macaroons, he force feeds her with them and almost makes her choke. This is a mild response in comparison with his cruel outburst when he reads the letter that Nora has been attempting to conceal. His punishment, now that she is perceived as a liar as well as a criminal, is to keep her at home but ban her from further contact with her children in case she contaminates them. In the course of this quarrel, the supposedly loving husband yells out "HEEL", a control call for dogs.
Attention to detail, a variety of emotional response and development of character is also evident in the performances of Eben Figueiredo as Krogstag and Eleanor Sutton as Christina. They re-examine the nature of their relationship in which decisions based on necessity have led to problematic and unhappy lives.
As Doctor Rank, Aaron Anthony provides an important extra dimension to the action. Here is a character capable of a loving relationship but denied it because he is having to face up to the imminent reality of his death. This provides a model of courage and objectivity which influences Nora's behaviour.
It is a significant feature of the production that no children are involved in the action and the Christmas game of hide and seek takes place offstage. This allows the focus of the play to be on Nora's relationship with Torvald and her need to assert her own identity, become better educated and express her own opinions rather than agonising over the loss of her children.
A very interesting and successful set design by Chiara Stephenson initially presents a large, wooden house exterior surrounded by a shiny black surface which could be perceived as the "black water, cold as ice" which Nora sees when she anticipates disaster. The wooden house opens up in a most unexpected way and displays the main living area and a secondary space. The Christmas parties attended by Nora and Torvald are suggested by clever lighting and effective use of shadows, which give the impression of many people in a crowded room.
This is a really interesting performance of a play which has considerable contemporary relevance.