Review: NORA at Antaeus Theatre Company

Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play “A Doll’s House” is a classic and perhaps the first feminist theatrical project, resulting in a controversy and turning the show into a sensation because Denmark — not to mention most of the world — was not ready for women’s liberation at the time. It is still one of the most-performed plays, and in 1981, it was adapted and truncated from three acts to one brisk, 90-minute, intermission-free act by legendary Swedish film and theater director Ingmar Bergman. That version, NORA, is the interpretation presented by Antaeus Theatre Company with a tepid outcome.

It’s Christmas Eve in a Danish town in 1879 and Nora (Jocelyn Towne) wants to splurge because her husband Torvald’s (Brian Tichnell) promotion to bank manager promises to bring in more money, though that money won’t come in for months. Having unethically secured funds to help finance Torvald’s recent health recovery in Italy, Nora finds herself blackmailed by one of Torvald’s underlings, and the secrets she keeps and the lies she tells keep building, until she is backed into a corner.

Cameron Watson is a marvelous director so I think the problem with NORA is that in the longer, three-act running time, Nora’s world and its inhabitants would be fleshed out so that they had depth that is not evident in this adaptation and translation by Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker. Torvald treats her like a prized possession to keep on a shelf until he deigns to bring her down for his entertainment, calling her his “little squirrel,” which makes sense for the time and is also Ibsen’s point, while Nora plays into the role, taking care of the home, the complicated household affairs, and their three children. But she is self-centered and nervous to the point of mania where she would be better served as frivolous and perhaps flighty. Appearing to have everything, there are no real cracks in her veneer leading anyone to suspect the big change in character at the end. It comes out of nowhere as she has shown no sense of self-awareness or even that she resents being stifled. She takes no responsibility for her choices and is absolved through the actions of others, so her decision (no spoilers here), instead of being a declaration of freedom and independence, is really just another self-serving option of a self-absorbed woman. She makes bad choice after bad choice after bad choice and then abruptly decides to wash her hands of them. The subtleties and shadings of her character and her life are not illustrated in the text so we can’t understand the intricacies of Nora’s world either exterior or interior.

Towne, a consistently capable performer, plays Nora as stretched and winded while attempting to impart Nora’s anxiety through breathily rushed dialogue. Tichnell as the weak Torvald is over emotive, though in his quieter moments, he elicits a tenderness that borders on sympathy. Michael Kirby as Nora’s blackmailer starts as a moustache-twirling villain before he peels back layers so we can see the complexity of his actions and his life, a life that seems significantly more complex and nuanced than Nora’s. Peter James Smith and Mildred Marie Langford as a family friend and an old friend of Nora’s, respectively, are solid, though they aren’t given much to do.

The scenic design by Tesshi Nakagawa is stately, all seafoam–green floral walls and carpets, and the costumes by Terri A. Lewis are top-notch quality. Lighting designer Jared A. Sayeg sets a gothic tone creating shadows throughout the house, shadows that represent the churning domestic suspense that should be inherent in the script. While the themes in NORA are still, sadly, relevant, they would be better served with more time to explore them so that they would land with impact versus the dimple this script delivers.

NORA is performed at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center at the Antaeus Theatre Company, 110 East Broadway in Glendale, through May 26. Tickets are available at ci.ovationtix.com/35088/production/1160700.

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