A Doll’s House

Forget the faux feminism of The Spice Girls, or Lady Gaga’s meat dress as a symbol of the commoditisation of women, if you want to experience real ‘girl power’ head to Theatre Delicatessen’s fantastic all-female production of A Doll’s House.

Although offbeat theatre spaces have become fashionable of late, the former Uzbekistan Airways building near Oxford Street seems a particularly unlikely venue. But Theatre Delicatessen has worked with installation group Half Cut to transform the space into a playful, atmospheric setting – where the company completes its current run with this production.

‘A woman cannot be herself in contemporary society,’ wrote Henrik Ibsen in 1878. With Sophie Reynolds’ adaptation of A Doll’s House , these words feel as if they could have been written yesterday.

The play begins with the cast appearing one-by-one on the stage in just their underwear and striking model poses. The stage is catwalk-like in its proportions and the audience on both sides are in touching distance of the actors, so a sense of unease quickly builds as their gazes linger and we are invited to take a good look.

Once we have, the actors get dressed. But their costumes are difficult to locate within a specific era (although the pencil skirts are reminiscent of the 1950s).  The dialogue has also received a makeover, with Reynolds having updated it to modern tastes. But despite some obvious alterations – most notably Torvald’s (Margaret-Ann Bain) exclamation of ‘fucking hell!’ when his seduction attempts with Nora are disturbed for a second time – the script stays close to the original.

On the surface A Doll’s House is a fairly simple plot. Nora has been kept in a state of infantilism by her father, then husband Torvald. When he gets ill she commits an act of fraud to secure a loan so that he can recover abroad. The act catches up with her years later and threatens to destroy the family. Buy the joy, of course, is in seeing the characters’ psychological depths unravel.

All the performances are strong, but the biggest surprise is just how convincing the male characters are. Melissa Woodbridge effortlessly changes between the tragic Dr Rank to deferential maid Ellen; Rhoda Ofori-Attah plays Nils Krogstad with the desperation of man witnessing his life coming undone; and Bain’s swaggering, lusty Torvald is an absolute treat. Their believability as characters adds much weight to the idea of gender as an assumed role.

But it’s Polly Eachus’ Nora that steals the show. An undoubtedly annoying and child-like character, when Nora decides to leave Torvald and her gilded cage for ever, Eachus changes into jeans and exits the stage. It’s a culmination of  a brilliant performance and even for those who’ve known what’s coming, her dignified bravery still feels shocking.

The scandal caused by A Doll’s House when  first released is easy to forget (when issuing dinner invites Norwegian high society would request guests to refrain from even mentioning Ibesen’ s production). But  what feels most uncomfortable today is Theatre Delicatessen’s  reminder of just how modern the play’s themes still are.

A Doll’s House will be performed on January 5  to February 5, 2011 at:

Theatre Delicatessen
3-4 Picton Place
Oxford Street
Marylebone
W1U 1BJ