Fluellen Theatre
A DOLL`S HOUSE
JESSICA SANDRY
in
A DOLL`S HOUSE
by
HENRIK IBSEN
in a new performing version by FRANCIS HARDY
DIRECTED BY PETER RICHARDS
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REVIEW
One can always rely on Swansea-based Fluellen Theatre Company to breathe life into material which, in less skilled hands, could so easily be perceived to be dour and dispiriting, and this immensely absorbing adaptation of Henrik Ibsen`s classic story is a case in point. Originally staged in 1879 under the title of Et Dukkehjem, the story revolves around finanhcial deception, a sham marriage and a syphilitic suitor - not a combination calculated to cheer up audiences suffering from the winter blues, or so one might think.
How wonderful, then, to witness the manner in which director Peter Richards and his seven-strong cast manage to create a piece of theatre which is hugely upbeat ( in the first half at least) and thought-provoking. the dilemma faced by Nora (a gloriously incandescent central performance from Fluellen regular Jessica Sandry, best known for her comedic skills in plays such as To Whom It May Concern and Toshack Or Me!) has immense resonance today, given the obvious parallels with the omnipresent credit crunch and references to domestic discord running through the play.
The play has been described as the first feminist drama, and the manner in which Nora undergoes a subtle transformation from downtrodden wife to a stronger and moredetermined woman is skillfully portrayed.
Huw Richards offers an impressively assured performance as Torvald, while Liza Ludbrook`s characterisation of Nora`s friend Mrs Linde is well-judged. Fluellen stalwarts David Dooley (Dr Rank), Gavin Dando (Nils Krogstad) and Geraldine Davies (Helen) all fare splendidly in their respective roles and the pace of the work never flags for one moment.
A Doll`s House ends its run at the Grand Theatre Arts Wing on 12th February. I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone with a taste for intelligent period drama with a disarmingly modern twist.
GRAHAM WILLAMS South Wales Evening Post
Jessica Sandry, David Dooley, Huw Richards and Liza Ludbrook
REVIEW
"I`m looking forward to this. Ibsen is always a bundle of laughs, isn`t he?" This comment came from a chap in the audience before a performance of A DOLL`S HOUSE, the classic play by Henrik Ibsen at the De Valence in Tenby. He was being sarcastic, of course, pointing out Ibsen`s usual material - human misery in spades, by the fireside.
A DOLL`S HOUSE was performed by Fluellen Theatre Company, the Swansea-based company who are always welcome back to Tenby. The play centres on Nora, a wife and mother with a skeleton in the closet. This guilty secret isn`t seriously naughty by today`s standards, but in 1879 when the play was written, it was heinous. If she`d read today`s agony aunts, Nora would have admitted her crime early on and then worked with her family to come to terms with it. But she`s prevented from doing that by her husband`s intolerant nature. He, carrying priggishness to new heights, values respectability more than life.
Nora, who falls into the hands of a blackmailer, has an especially challenging role. JESSICA SANDRY, who takes it, needs to appear to her fellow actors as the happy extrovert she`s always been, while also conveying to the audience her excruciating internal torments. It`s all enough to send Nora batty. The part calls for tough acting skills and Jessica has them. Like most of Ibsen`s central characters, Nora is far from perfect and her final actions outweigh the immorality that caused the trouble in the first place.
Her husband is not only a stuffed shirt and a pedant, but has some outlandish views on the role of women. He doesn`t even expect household duties, but for her merely to stand about being decorative and idiotic. Like the doll in the play`s title. It`s a sign of how surely HUW RICHARDS brings off this character that, despite all his despicable faults, we have sympathy for the hapless husband in the end.
Seven people appear in this high quality drama, dexterously directed by PETER RICHARDS - and all get their demanding Ibsen roles right. There is far more going on than the lines suggest and even those seeing A DOLL`S HOUSE for the first time would - thanks to these accomplished actors - pick up most of the hidden motives and agendas. GAVIN DANDO as a disgraced banker is creepy, seedy and unscrupulous, and yet still evinces our sympathy. While is Mrs Linde, played by LIZA LUDBROOK, Nora`s best friend - or a conniving enemy? Hard to tell, and that is probably what the author intended. DAVID DOOLEY, is convincing as the dying doctor. And two smaller roles, Maid GERALDINE DAVIES and Porter SHAUN HUGHES could hardly have been done better.
There was a lot to think about in A DOLL`S HOUSE - that`s what makes the play so famous. And even with repeated viewings, you may never take it all in. But Fluellen put across this unsettling mix of unbearable indecision, guilt, revenge and the anger so competently that nobody in Tenby`s De Valence - including the many pupils and students who attended - should expect to see a more satisfying version in the future.
MALCOLM STACEY Tenby Observer