A Doll’s House

A Doll’s House

Space Productions

Arcola Theatre

On paper, Space Productions’ staging of Ibsen’s classic is a mosaic of playful interventions: movement, puppetry, Norns-goddesses from Norse mythology and a fantastical set design. On stage, these additions seem distracted, trivializing the issues at the heart of Ibsen’s play with heavy-handed theatrics.

In Alex Crampton’s direction, Nora (Gina Abolins) is a caged bird in a man’s land; she is transformed by circumstance when she is forced to react to Krogstad’s (Alexander Gatehouse) pressures in order to protect her husband, Torvald. In a set lined with suspended pots, teacups and sweets, Crampton attempts to flesh out our own consumerist emancipation through Nora’s transformation, placing the two block of audience face to face, either side of the set.

Yet it is the circumstances of this emancipation that are underexplored in the production, as the visual and physical language of the show feel synthetic, with little regard for Ibsen’s text. It seems the fragility of Nora’s character gets lost in the pretty-in-pink aesthetics and an overemphasis on drama. The three Norns that are present during Nora’s every monologue seem trite and melancholic, removing the danger and vulnerability of a character on the brink. The performance is full of signposts that interfere with an otherwise engaging power game between Nora and Krogstad.

Other additions to the performance, such as the sound design and the puppetry, are inventive yet misdirected intrusions. The puppets that play Nora’s children speak in high-pitched gibberish and look like dolls with no faces- something that holds little impact on the show, and is more confusing within the overall visual narrative. The sound design frames the scenes well, yet is repeated too often.

A Doll’s House is an ambitious production, yet its dramaturgical approach doesn’t hold under the weight of its imposed theatrics. Despite a committed cast and some engaging moments, particularly between Nora and her friend Kristine, the performance seems naive in its attempt to pave the narrative with a series of yet unfinished concepts.