"Nora" at Shotgun Players

Shotgun Players photo by Pak Han

I'm definitely out of the habit of blogging! I guess that's what taking a vacation does.

The opening show of Shotgun Players' 26th season is Nora, an adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House by Ingmar Bergman. At under two hours, this is a greatly-reduced version of the original material, with far fewer characters (for example, none of Nora and Torvald's children appear, though they are mentioned). The point would be to focus on the critical elements, such as Nora's relationship with her society and the individual relationships of the five characters. Add to that the starkly minimal staging, and there is not much to distract from those elements.

The Play

I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of either version of the play. I mean, it's fine, and there are good themes and some interesting characterizations. But I find the translations rather dull, lacking much spark. I assume it's better in the original. And perhaps I've grown up in a unique and privileged environment where I perceive women as largely unencumbered by social and family constraints on their life choices. As such, it's hard for me to relate to the issues Nora faces in this play. I think that contributed to my feeling that Nora's really important speech at the end of the play didn't feel authentic. It was written in rather stilted language that didn't feel right coming from Nora at that point, so I found it less moving that it ought to be.

I don't really have a lot to add here: it's a well-known story, and there's not much I can say about it without spoiling it for those who don't already know it.

The Performance

I quite like the minimal set. It gives you both a sense of Nora's isolation from both her family and her society, but because it has no wall, it makes it so everyone else just kind of appears in her life. She has no control of her boundaries. That's pretty powerful imagery. And the wallpaper on the back wall is really great at setting a period mood.

That said, I didn't care for the choice to dress Nora (and only Nora) in relatively modern dress. Everyone else is dressed for the 1870s, and Nora looks like the 1970s. OK, I get that she's not really a woman of her time, but this seems rather heavy-handed, and frankly spoils some of the reveals in the text. One of the main points of Nora's character is that she has to hide some of her non-conforming behavior, and we only learn about it later, and it's supposed to be a surprise or even a shock. But we're all set up for it by her dress, and I think it detracts from the drama of the script.

That said, the acting is quite good. Jessma Evans is a fine Nora (with the caveat about the costuming), and all the other actors are fine. Erin Mei-Ling Stuart is a bit cold and distant as Mrs. Linde, and I'm not sure the script really supports that. It certainly makes it harder to understand her relationship with Nora. If she's really that cold and self-interested, then again it makes Nora less of a surprise with her transgressions.

Overall

I'm not a huge fan of the play itself, but I thought the performance was well done, with the exception of the choice of how to present Nora's character. I kind of kept expecting her to toss her beret in the air and jump like Mary Tyler Moore, which is not what I'm supposed to get out of this play. Our party was kind of divided on the subject, ranging from one who found the play unwatchable because of the cognitive dissonance of the costuming, to a couple who found it irritating but ultimately understandable, to one who just shrugged it off.

So it's good, but not terrific. I had hoped for more.

Nora runs through the rest of this week, until April 23rd.