Critics’ Forum
Theater
Finding the Universal in Ibsen’s A Doll House
By Lori Yeghiayan
Question: What does a play, written in Norwegian in 1879 about a
woman’s journey toward personhood and freedom from repressive social,
gender and class norms, have to do with the Armenian community?
Answer: The play, A Doll House, by 19th century Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen, was recently produced by Glendale’s Luna Playhouse – one
of Los Angeles’ only theatres founded and operated by Armenian
artists – and directed by Luna Playhouse Artistic Director, Aramazd
Stepanian.
The majority of Luna’s audience, according to Stepanian, is
Armenian.
So, why produce an Ibsen play?
"Because it’s one of the greatest plays ever written. It’s just a
great play. What situations! What characters! What deep
psychological insight!"
That was director Stepanian’s enthusiastic response when I asked him
that question on a recent Saturday afternoon visit to Luna. We sat in
the theatre – momentarily empty while the cast and crew of the upcoming
My Heart’s in the Highlands, by William Saroyan, were on break from
rehearsal – and chatted about Stepanian’s production and the play’s
relevance to a contemporary audience.
A major work by one of the most influential playwrights of modern
Western theatre, Ibsen’s A Doll House (commonly translated as A
Doll’s House) is an early example of "realism" – a genre characterized
by an invisible "fourth wall" that remains unbroken by the actors.
It is as if in the midst of the characters’ lives the fourth wall of
their living room were removed, allowing the audience to peer in on
the action as it unfolds.
The play opens on the living room of the Helmer home and on the lives
of Torvald and Nora Helmer, a young married couple with three small
children and several servants. Theirs is a seemingly happy home.
Husband Torvald is a bank manager, wealthy and respected; wife Nora
is beautiful and devoted, cheerful in her domestic duties. Into this
stasis arrive Nora’s less-privileged childhood friend Kristine Linde
in search of a job and Nils Kroggstad, an employee of Torvald’s at
the bank – a man desperate to regain his lost status in the community.
Also a key figure: the Helmers’ friend and frequent visitor, Dr.
Rank, who is in love with Nora and who, despite his money and high
status in the community, is terminally ill – rotting from the inside
out from an inherited disease.
All of the characters are victims of what Ibsen sees as the diseased
and destructive forces of oppressive societal standards of marriage,
gender and social class that deny them the freedom to develop into
full human beings. The dramatic action of the play exposes the weak
foundations of Nora and Torvald’s marriage and propels Nora out the
door in search of knowledge and her authentic self.
Though the final action of A Doll House – in which the main character
Nora leaves her husband after eight years of marriage calling herself
a "doll-wife" and their home a "play-room" – may have lost its power to
shock, the play still has a lot to say to a contemporary audience.
The psychological truth of the characters has made it a classic,
relevant to almost any modern community – whether the view out that
community’s windows is the Norwegian Fjords or Glendale’s Verdugo
Mountains.
The Luna Playhouse production was directed with precision and depth
by Stepanian and was confidently acted by a uniformly solid cast.
Stepanian chose to set the play in northern Europe in the late 1950s,
and Maro Parian’s detailed set and costumes served the production
well, especially in establishing the time period. Henrik
Mansourian’s lighting design also added to the realistic setting,
with some nice lyrical moments, such as the rapid fade to moonlight
during the love scene between Nora and Dr. Rank, as the sun sets on
his life and their life-affirming relationship.
The theatre had originally planned to stage an Armenian-language
version of the play to run in repertory with the English version but
was not able to for various logistical reasons It would have been
interesting to see that interpretation and how Stepanian might have
utilized culturally-specific archetypes that have particular
resonance for an Armenian audience.
Luna Playhouse’s artistic mission is not, however, limited by genre,
language or culture. "We don’t look at our audience as just an
Armenian audience," said Stepanian. "Yes, we do Saroyan, but we also
do [contemporary British playwright, Harold] Pinter and others."
"Why?" I asked.
"We do it primarily because the artists involved are interested in
it."
I applaud the Luna Playhouse leadership for presenting great plays
>From many cultures and for offering its audience theatre that speaks
to universal experience – whether the playwright is from Norway,
England, Armenia or the U.S. Great drama exists to explore all
aspects of the human experience: love, death, war, identity, family,
class, gender, repression, freedom – most cultures and communities have
experience with such issues, and each of them has a lot to teach and
learn from the others.
I asked Stepanian what he thought A Doll House was ultimately about.
He answered by referring to an exchange between Nora and her husband
in the final scene of the play: "I think it’s about her [Nora’s]
line, `I must learn about the world.’ The important realization for
her is `I have to figure out what the world is about.’ "
He added, "She sees her own problem and she wants to change – which is
a universal problem for everyone."
All Rights Reserved: Critics’ Forum, 2008. Exclusive to the Armenian
Reporter.
Lori Yeghiayan holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater from the
University of California, San Diego and has worked as a professional
actress in television, radio, film and theatre.
You can reach her or any of the other contributors to Critics’ Forum
at [email protected]. This and all other articles published
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discuss issues relating to Armenian art and culture in the Diaspora.