Superficial Authenticity — A DOLL'S HOUSE at TAG

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a very “well made” play. It follows all of Aristotle’s rules about unity, telling a detailed story without jumping around in time or changing the scene location. This is an old fashioned play and TAG’s Brad Powell delivers an old fashioned production. You can almost imagine it as a film in black and white.

Roberge, Jones, & Farmer
Courtesy of TAG—The Actors' Group

But this is a play. Live and in color. Which is good, because otherwise you’d miss how lovely the set and costumes are. The small theatre abounds in detail, from the stove to the picture window to the decorated Christmas tree and so much more. Andy Alvarado has truly outdone himself. Carlynn Wolfe’s and Christine Valles’s costumes complete the transportation to 1890’s Norway.

The story centers on Nora and the moment when her world, or what she imagines it to be, dissolves. And beyond the mirage she finds the mirror, and faces, for the first time in her life, unadorned reality. This production actually features a mirror, in which Nora likes to gaze at her pretty reflection, exemplifying her preoccupation with superficiality.

The actors tell the story quite well, each playing his or her part in the melodrama, some more mellow and some more drama. Anemone Jones has the part of Nora. Her portrayal is energetic and very committed, though a touch disconnected at times, especially in scenes with her husband, Torvald Helmer, played by Aaron Roberge, who has about as much charisma as a dead fish in this role, which, I suppose, is his interpretation of Torvald’s character.

The chemistry lacking between husband and wife ought to be made up for by Nora’s relationship with Torvald’s good friend Dr. Rank, played by David C. Farmer. The idea is that Nora and Dr. Rank have developed an intimate relationship—too intimate, though Nora pretends the whole thing is perfectly innocent. Unfortunately, in this production, there’s no sexual tension at all. This Doll’s House is built in a world a bit more PG than I expected.

Some of the very best moments in the show happen during scenes featuring Nora and her old friend just arrived on the scene, Kristine, played by Sara Cate Langham. The women—as is so often true—are the ones with the real chemistry. When watching Jones and Langham, the world of the play truly fills the space of the theatre, and instead of two actresses, there are two women, Nora and Kristine, seeing one another again after many years of separation.

Despite my partially unfulfilled expectations—something bound to happen with such an iconic play—this is absolutely a show worth seeing. The actors are competent if not excellent, the design elements show TAG at its best, and the flavor of the original play saturates the air of the theatre somehow. There is something very authentic about this production, while at the same time there is something rather superficial. A melodrama. A reflection and a mirage. Like Nora. And like society or civilization or whatever you might label the illusion of order we humans so desperately crave.

[runs through Sunday, July 1. Thursday-Saturdays, 7:30 pm, Sunday matinees, 2 pm, 650 Iwilei Road, Suite 101, taghawaii.net/, 722-6941]