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Writer's pictureHarry Brogan

REVIEW | A Doll's House, Sheffield Crucible

AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

TW: Haze, Flashing Lights and Loud Sound.


 

A story about feeling like you are a doll and not knowing who you really are, is what The Sheffield Crucible has to offer in their production of Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’. Directed by Elin Schofield and adapted by Chris Bush, ‘A Doll’s House’ centres around hidden secrets that could really make you start to question yourself and your whole life. 


Photo credit: Mark Douet

Originally written by Henrik Ibsen and inspired by real events in 1870 that happened in Ibsen’s life, ‘A Doll’s House’ follows wife and mother Nora Helmer. Helmer lives, what looks from the outside, in a happy home and in a happy relationship, but deep down it’s not so happy after all, and the uncertainties begin to appear, and Nora begins to think about who she really is!


Chris Bush’s adaptation to this piece is modernistic, Bush strips away the majority of the original piece's language, that to the majority wouldn’t be really understandable and also not used today. By doing this it brings in more clear and updated dialogue to make sure the piece can run and be understood better, but while also still keeping the elements of the original. The change is what was needed, it brought a slightly more clearer focus to the show as a whole, without you scrambling to understand. While the piece has a lot of darkness and suspense to it, it also brings a few laughs within it too. While this is great from Bush, and is somewhat adapted well for today's audience, for me personally, I wanted slightly more from the writing side of this show, and by this I mean I wanted a little more from some characters but also more added context for the reasonings of why Nora ( played by Siena Kelly ) is acting the way we are seeing. An example of this is when Nora was practising her dance, which felt manic and in some ways hard to watch, maybe an alternative would have been an internal monologue that could of been in sections and not in one moment when Nora is on her own to allow a little more understanding, I feel I would have got, as to me it left me with just a slight tad of confusion. The show isn't an overly dramatic contemporary piece, with funny moments and keeping us all in suspense until the very end, which all in all are admired and felt appreciated by the audience members and by me also, with many audience members gasping and laughing. Bush takes many of the show's themes, especially self-discovery and pushes them to deliver on what is something quite relevant today for audiences to relate to. 


Directed by Elin Schofield, Schofield keeps within Bush’s adaptation again by not being so contemporary, still keeping it set within the older setting and period which actually again is clever to keep the period element. Schofield brings out the tension between characters and also brings out more of the themes of the show, which helps the book and also adds to the suspense of the show as a whole too. The direction between characters is well thought out and is displayed between performers brilliantly. Whilst direction between characters is great, directing Nora on her own is great, but when Nora is on her own and is panicking about what could happen, I have mixed feelings for me at points, which is where I would of liked the input of dialogue, that could of been added and used to balance the action on stage. There are really good intimate moments between Torvald (Played Tom Glenister) which got laughs and towards the end gasps. In Act Two the direction was paired back and simplistic which really allowed us to see how Nora really feels, which was brilliant as it sharpened the tension between both characters, which I really liked. Overall Schofield’s direction shows tension, love, friendship, and it does show panic for Nora maybe not personally how I would have liked to have done it but that's just my opinion. Schofield creates some fine moments which were excellently delivered by the cast members. 


 

Photo credit: Mark Douet

 

The cast for this show has only 6 members, with the show having a small cast it is important that the direction between the cast is right and it was in this show.


Siena Kelly plays Nora, Kelly is the main focus of the show, Kelly is great, with Nora being on stage all the time for the majority of the show. Kelly does a terrific performance throughout, displaying this character and showing us how within a space of a year her family have gone from nothing to something which is great to see. Kelly is swift at changing the two sides of Nora quickly enough to show both happy (or so we think) and panic, which again coming back to more dialogue I could see that Nora was panicking through Kelly's performance, but just needed more of the why. While also showing a caring nature especially towards Dr Rank, which Kelly also constantly tries to reassure herself that nothing else bad could happen in the scene with Dr Rank ( played by Aaron Anthony). Overall Kelly’s performance has brilliant character which is greatly performed throughout. 


Tom Glenister, plays Nora’s husband Torvald, who gave off what is a charming husband type character who works hard to provide for the family, and who is also quite funny. Glenister slowly reveals the true self within the second act that presented himself as a little controlling type character. This side of his character felt dark but not too dark, it was right for how it was performed by Glenister, and does a good job bringing this to the stage. 


Aaron Anthony plays Dr Rank, Rank gives off a warm personality, who is very likeable for the audience to watch, with the character we are presented with someone you can trust and see the connection that both he and Nora have together and the situation that he is in gave me a character to really care about. Anthony is a very pleasing performer to watch. 


With set design by Chiara Stephenson, Stephenson does fab work on the set, really giving the sense of inside and outside and with the mirrors surrounding the outside of the ‘house’ gave a floating feeling to it. The set helped bring the story together allowing you to see inside Nora's Doll’s House!


While ‘A Doll’s House’ for me personally feels like it could need some tweaks with the direction and also dialogue in some places this does not take away from the full story that came across. It is suspenseful throughout and the simplicity in act two is a great example of getting your point across without complication. The team behind the show does a great job of updating but keeping it respectful and sticking to the original piece in its costumes and set design and keeping in its same time period, while still keeping it relevant for today's theatre audiences.  



 

★★★★

A Doll's House is playing at the Sheffield Crucible until the 12th of October.


Photo credit: Mark Douet


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