Mildred Marie Langford and Jocelyn Towne (Photo by Jenny Graham)
This review is part of the Stage Raw/Unusual Suspects Youth Journalism Fellowship
Reviewed by Nola Bowie
Antaeus Theatre Company
Through May 25
RECOMMENDED
When Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman published his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s controversial classic A Doll’s House in 1989, audiences were reminded of how, at its core, the story is simply about one woman’s journey to finding independence in a male-dominated world. The adaptation, Nora, is currently playing at The Antaeus Company in Glendale, and its themes of feminism and conformity continue to age well.
Of course, in 1879, A Doll’s House was an immediate scandal, as it was one of the first modern works to challenge imbalance within marriages and to expose what really could be happening behind closed doors.
Nora shortens Ibsen’s work from three acts to one act, stripping it down to its essential themes. The play, which begins on Christmas eve in the late 1800s, follows whimsical housewife Nora Helmer (Jocelyn Towne), who spends her days embroidering, playing with her children, and following the orders of her husband, Torvald Helmer (Brian Tichnell). Torvald has recently been promoted to Bank Manager, which raises the family’s income and additionally raises Torvald’s ego.
Nora is then visited by her childhood friend Christine Linde (Mildred Marie Langford), recently widowed and looking for work, preferably at Torvald’s bank. However, by taking a position at the bank, Christine would be replacing Nils Krogstad (Michael Kirby), a mysterious and stubborn man with a scandalous past. Krogstad’s past is remarkably similar to that of Nora, whose hidden financial crimes are exposed early on in the play, and he tells her that if Torvald fires Krogstad, he will make Nora’s actions public, ruining the reputation of the Helmers.
Plagued with Krogstad’s threats, the concealed emotions of her good-humored friend Dr. Rank (Peter James Smith), and the growing aggression of her husband, Nora must look within and confront the secrets and identity that she thought she had hidden for good.
Tesshi Nakagawa’s set is simple and realistic, as it is separated into three large panels, each filled with period-accurate furniture, cast over with consistent blue-tinted lighting (by Jared A. Sayeg). While it might have been nice to see some variety in the lighting, it was very successful in illustrating the tone of the play, and it looked beautiful during the scenes that took place at night. Composer Ellen Mandel’s music was easily my favorite technical aspect of the production, as between each scene there was a pleasant yet eerie chorus of bells, chimes, and children’s laughter.
However, as the story gets more complicated, the music’s underlying drums get louder and more intense, resulting in a fantastic effect at the very end of the play.
While some of the blocking and staging felt odd and almost hard to see, Director Cameron Watson’s love of the tale shines through in the performances of the five-person cast, in which there are no weak links. Those that shine are the women in the play, which works well for a play about the roots of modern feminism. Towne intricately portrays Nora’s attempts to conceal her secrets with grace and playfulness, as many women were expected to do at the time. Her performance makes for an effective contrast to Langford’s Christine, whose quiet strength serves a great purpose in Nora discovering that women can, in fact, do things by and for themselves.
For a play that has been adapted into films, books, and other mediums, Nora is the one of the most straightforward versions of A Doll’s House, and this production does a masterful job of honoring the source material while emphasizing the age-old struggle still dealt with today: gender inequality. Despite the story being well over 100 years old, its subject matter does not feel dated in the slightest, and this uncomplicated yet powerful production is worth seeing.
Antaeus Theatre Company, 110 East Broadway, Glendale; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. Mon., 8 p.m. thru May 26. https://antaeus.org/show-details/nora; running time, 100 minutes with no intermission.
