A Doll’s House At Hubbard Hall

a review by Alex Brooks
The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall has opened its 2009-20010 season with a production of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, A Doll’s House. As this play was written at about the same time that Hubbard Hall was built, the original proscenium stage is used, looking glorious in something like its original configuration. This arrangement also serves to accentuate the idea of Nora’s life being “in a doll’s house,” or as Director Laura Heidinger puts it in her notes, her “life behind glass.” The set, beautifully constructed by Alley Morse and the actor who plays Dr. Rank, Richard Howe, complements this idea nicely.
The play was shockingly modern when it was first performed, challenging the smug verities of Victorian life and challenging people to look deeper at marriage and relationships in general. Some have called it the first feminist play, and indeed it raises many of the same issues that have been brought up by the feminist movement over the last 50 years. But more generally, it probes the masks we wear, the roles we play and how these come into conflict with who we really are and how we really feel.
The most difficult thing about this play is to bridge the enormous gap between the happy, flighty Nora of the first act, and the serious mature Nora who emerges at the end when she confronts her husband and goes her own way. Likewise, Torvald is a difficult character because, although he is conventional, controlling and shallow, his delight in his wife is genuine and his devastation at the prospect of losing her is real. For the play to work emotionally we have to see the deceptive way they treat each other and see at the same time their genuine love for each other.
For the most part the leading couple here is able to pull this off. Stephanie Moffett-Hynds’ breathless, coquettish Nora is fascinating in the first act, and she has real gravitas in the final confrontation. One wonders a bit at the rapid transformation, but perhaps that is more a reflection on the play than the performance. And Jason Dolmetsch’s Torvald, though rather contemptible right to the end, being ready to throw Nora overboard when his career is in danger then suddenly forgiving and magnanimous when it no longer is, managed to retain my sympathy. His love is believable even if he is a prisoner of his conventional attitudes.
This production brings out the timeless themes of the play as well as any I’ve seen and leaves the viewer with much food for thought. The show will be offered on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 and Sunday afternoons at 2 for the next three weekends – November 20, 21, 27, 28 and December 4 and 5, at 8 pm, and November 22 and 29 and December 6 at 2 pm. Call the box office at 677-2495 for tickets or information or visit www.hubbardhall.org.