Rebel Without A Cause?
“This is not just a rebel play. This is A Doll’s House.” So wrote director Peter Godden in his programme notes and he was right. Ibsen’s play was a highly influential play when it was first performed in the late 19^th century, and Godden’s polished team of actors and set designers have done it justice with a professional and moving production.

The first thing that strikes you when walking into the cosy Leech Hall at St John’s College is how apt the location is in reflecting the stage itself. It was a cold November evening outside, giving the play’s Christmas setting an added chill, and the square and enclosed feel of the hall reflected the claustrophobic effect of the Helmers’ house. The staging was excellent, with subtle references to the main conflict of the play – not so much that of Nora and Torvald as characters, but that of Nora’s role as wife and mother versus her identity as an individual – encapsulated in the two pictures hanging on the walls, one of a pretty bouquet of flowers, the other of a wide and untamed landscape. Ibsen always used his setting to underline certain themes in his plays and set designers Pops Barham and Tom Hardyman have faithfully adhered to this in an original and effective way. Torvald’s grey top hat, for example, left hanging on the tall hat stand, denotes the male presence and dominance before the play has even started.

Nora’s transformation from her light and coquettish manner to her revolutionary and sober departure at the end of the play is hard to portray, but an excellent performance from Lucy Cornell, who grew in confidence after a slightly nervous entrance, provided a strong central thread within the play. Her relationship with William Fisher’s Torvald, who smoothly alternated from patronising and petting Nora to sternly putting her in her place when he deemed it necessary, was amusing, sweet and cemented the identity of both characters well. This contrasted well with the growing change in their relationship, and culminatws in Torvald’s aggressiveness in the final scene.

Sober Seriousness
Cornell also conveyed Nora’s inner anxiety about her situation from the beginning; as she was at various points left alone onstage, her face would fall and she would often sink onto the imposing burgundy sofa in contemplation. Such moments were built up nicely through the play, until Cornell was no longer waiting for solitude before allowing her shoulders to droop and her face to crease in lines of worry. As more details of her forged signature emerged, Cornell began to use to the limited stage space to show her growing sense of being trapped, although the first few times she and the other characters ventured onto the two platforms at the front of the stage, the noise of treading on the slightly unstable set unfortunately distracted the audience from the action.

Although Ibsen’s play is undoubtedly a drama, it has its moments of comedy, and these were delightfully provided by Ben Salter’s crotchety and sardonic Doctor Rank; in one section, every sentence he delivered was with such comic emphasis that he had the whole audience laughing. The overall ability of the cast was high, with Sarah Trotter’s motherly portrayal of the nurse superbly warm and natural for a part that has very little time to establish her character onstage. Sophie Bicknell’s Mrs Linde was probably the most natural character of the troupe; sincere and believable, her sober seriousness provided a good foil to Nora’s giddiness, especially in the early stages of the play. Their contrast was also well conveyed by their difference in dress; Emma Matthews’ costume design established individuality for her characters by placing Nora in a bright green dress compared to Mrs Linde’s much plainer brown one. Krogstad, played with a clear air of menace by Patrick Neyman, managed to extract some tenderness in his reconciliation with Mrs Linde at the beginning of Act Three, although this would have been helped if his character had shown more of his softer nature at other points in the play. Solid performances from Hannah Shand as Helen the maid and the charming Hannah Wilkinson as Nora’s daughter, served to heighten the realism of the play, as did the ingenious idea to show the characters offstage movements by having them walk visibly past the two open doorways in the back of the set as they moved about the house.

Whilst the acting ran smoothly, there were certain elements on the production side that did not. A lengthy costume change between Act One and Act Two meant that the audience were openly talking by the time Nora re-entered. This could have easily been averted by Anne-Marie entering and proceeding to arrange the fancy dress material and perhaps decorate the Christmas tree; this would also have emphasised the Christmas setting which was largely ignored apart from the mandatory references in the script and the bedraggled Christmas tree, which was brought in and then left neglected at the end of a platform. Although not all of the slip-ups came off that badly; Cornell and Salter extracted a nice bit of ad-lib comedy when the stockings Nora uses to flirt with Dr Rank failed to materialise from backstage.

Making An Exit
But it is the end of A Doll’s House which is so powerful, and which tends to make or break any production of it. Godden’s ending was both original and full of pathos, not just for Nora, who is inevitably seen as the victim, but for her abandoned husband as well. There was the customary and distressing breaking down of the relationship, and with Cornell’s Nora coming closer to hysteria than at any other point in the play. The tension was palpable, and as Nora softly declared that she no longer loves Torvald, there was absolute silence in the hall. Finally Nora departed, leaving Torvald alone in what suddenly seemed like a much bigger and emptier stage. As he sank down onto the sofa with his head in his hands, she returned, looking as if she is about to speak for a moment and then simply stood there. The silence was almost unbearable, and when it broke with Nora’s final rush and slamming of the door, the audience were left with a strong sense of the pathos of her departure, both for herself and her husband.

“An exit should always be effective, Mrs Linde. But I just can’t get Nora to see that,” quips Torvald with unintended irony at the beginning of Act Three. With this production, Godden and his team not only added a nice touch to the dramatic exit but rendered Nora’s struggle and the relationship of the characters both effective and poignant to the audience throughout the play.