Date: Fri 08-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: AMYD

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Town-Players-Ibsen-theatre

Full Text:

(rev "A Doll's House" @Town Players of Newtown, 11/8/96)

Theatre Review-

A Victorian Scandal, In Newtown

BY JULIE STERN

"Any woman who can't get her husband to vote the ways she wants him to isn't

worth her salt"

That anti-suffrage pronouncement is a classic rationalization of the denial of

equal rights to women. In Ibsen's feminist classic A Doll's House (at

Newtown's Little Theatre until Nov. 23), Nora Helmer is naively happy in her

marriage to pompous, newly-appointed bank manager Torvald, despite his

patronizing disparagement of her character and intelligence.

After all, she has the good fortune to be married to a strong, handsome,

successful man, has a nice home and three attractive children - what more

could she want? In a society where as a woman she is legally subservient,

denied the right to vote or even to sign her name on a business document, Nora

has learned the art of manipulation.

If Torvald imagines he can micro-manage her life, Nora is content in her

awareness she can get around him if need be.

Her greatest triumph is the fact that years ago, Torvald's health was

threatened by overwork and illness; the doctor warned he would die unless he

escaped the harsh Norwegian climate. Knowing Torvald would never borrow the

money, Nora pretended her dying father gave her enough to take the family to

Italy for a year.

In fact, she had forged her father's name on a document, then borrowed the

money (something wives could not do without a husband's permission) from the

shady Nils Krogstadt. For the last few years, Nora has been secretly scrimping

on housekeeping money and taking in odd jobs to keep up interest payments.

Torvald's frivolous "little squirrel" saved the life of the man she loves.

The bank promotion means the end of money worries and being able to pay off

the debt (by tapping into her increased clothing allowance). It also triggers

the events that lead to Nora's realization her life is that of a pretty, but

inconsequential, plaything.

Nora's childhood friend Kristine arrives with a sad story of how she ended up

an impoverished widow. She is hoping Torvald might be able to find her a job

at his bank.

However, it turns out Torvald creates a post for Kristine by firing the

current clerk, one Nils Krogstadt. Desperate to keep his own job, Krogstadt

blackmails Nora: If she doesn't get her husband to change his mind, Nils will

make public the forged document, and Torvald will be scandalized by his wife's

crime.

Meanwhile, Dr Rank, a family friend secretly in love with Nora, is dying of an

inherited congenital disease. When Nora hears his condition is the result of

his father's excesses and indulgences, she naively interprets this in terms of

her own indulgences - the rich foods her husband has forbidden.

The disease is a metaphor for the deceit and hypocrisy of the Victorian era,

which placed so much emphasis on virtue and respect for women but was also the

heyday of prostitution, pretense and double standards.

The inequality of the sexes was justified by the myth that superior

intelligence, rational thinking and steady character by men made them

qualified to guide and protect their families, with women only in subservient,

loyal and unquestioning dependents.

Yet as Nora begins to assert her own intelligence and courage, it becomes

clear Torvald is rigid without strength, arrogant without intelligence,

dogmatic without rationality. If she stays in her marriage, she will remain a

child - a doll in a pretty house - whose children are raised by a competent

nursemaid.

The sound of a door shutting - which closes the play - and the implication it

could ever be appropriate for a woman to abandon her marriage, husband and

children, so outraged Victorian audiences they stormed out of theatres;

critics demanded Ibsen be banned from the stage. However, Doll's House remains

one of his two greatest and most abiding works.

The Town Players have given the play a thoughtful and well crafted staging.

Especially good is Kimberly Anne Lowden, who makes an utterly convincing Nora.

Elliott Mayer as Krogstadt and Steve Affinito as Dr Rank bring complexity and

definition to their roles.

Terry Snyder, with his manly jutting chin, looks good in the part of Helmer,

but seems a little too one-dimensional. Debra Creedon is wistfully moving as

Kristine, and in a small but beautifully played part, Barbara Pacelli makes a

fine debut as Anne Marie, the nursemaid.

Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8:30 pm; tickets are $10. Call the

Theatre, 270-9144.