A DOLL'S HOUSE till 14 February, then touring till 27 March

Birmingham/Tour

A DOLL'S HOUSE: Henrik Ibsen
Adaptation by Bryony Lavery from literal translation by Neil Howard and Tonje Gotschalksen
Birmingham Rep: till 14 February Tkts 0121 236 4455
Review: Rod Dungate 5 February 2004

Ibsen's masterpiece vibrant, tragic, comic and theatrical.
Four women stand in the centre of this marvellous production. Imagine this play as an old painting important, lots to say about it, historical but, well, slightly dull. Then it's restored; its colours shimmer, you are drawn into it, you are shocked and thrilled by the details you now see. This is how Bryony Lavery, Rachel Kavanaugh, Tara Fitzgerald and Jane Gurnett have restored Ibsen's masterpiece. What more can I say but this . . . 3h 20m with its intervals, the play rests on five pairs of shoulders and the time whizzes by.

It's impossible to see or read The Doll's House (nb Lavery calls her script A Doll Home which is rather better) without being shocked how modern it still feels Lavery says 'rather futuristic'. Here is Nora, a doll to decorate her husband's house, she has done a wrong deed for the rightest of reasons, she is nearly destroyed by this and eventually leaves her husband and three beautiful children to find out who she really is. And importantly to offer her husband a chance to find out who he really is.

Lavery seems to have totally inhabited the two central women as she translates the play into English for us. Nora (Tara Fitzgerald) and her friend Mrs Linde (Jane Gurnett) are so fully flesh and blood it's as if Ibsen's 1880 world and ours magically merge.

Fitzgerald is Torvald's toy in every fibre. She leaps, smiles, dances, skips and jumps for him. She even reveals her secret to her friend, Mrs Linde, as a performance. How can she do it? Any lesser human being would crack under the strain. Her dance in Act II is all consuming, her journey towards her suicide is thrilling to behold, her quiet calmness at the play's conclusion is magnificent.

Gurnett's Linde is tough too, but always human: warm but with steel inside. Her scene in Act III with the lawyer Krogstad in which they speak of their past and future love reverberates in the production with a strength I don't remember in previous productions.

But it's the vital sense of connection between Fitzgerald and Gurnett that makes creates such a strong platform for this play. Director Kavanaugh has worked in great detail with the actors too. There's a scene in which Nora, Linde and Dr Rank eat macaroons each in a different way. Nora with her body and soul while Mrs Linde finds they stick to her teeth: the scene is both tender and funny. Here too we see a splendid example of Lavery's use of colloquialisms 'A little of what you fancy' says Nora: Rank agrees we know but macaroons are far from his mind. Again, the potent mix of tenderness and comedy.

This is a strong acting team. Tom Goodman-Hill's Torvald Helmer makes an exciting journey from stiff and cold, to sexual being and finally sweeps onto great peaks of passion.

And all takes place in Ruari Murchison's elegant and light Scandinavian setting.

You won't get A Doll Home much better than this.

Nora Helmer: Tara Fitzgerald
Torvald Helmer: Tom Goodman-Hill
Mrs Linde: Jane Gurnett
Mrs Linde: Jane Gurnett
Nils Krogstad: Richard Clothier
Dr Rank: Peter Guinness
Anne-Marie, the Nanny: Petra Markham
Helene, the Maid: Maisie Dimbleby
Delivery Man: Will Gregson

Director: Rachel Kavanaugh
Designer: Ruari Murchison
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Composer: Terry Davies
Choreographer: Scarlett Mackmin
Staff Director: Neale Birch

2004-02-06 19:44:07