A Doll’s House

A Doll’s House, like a gilded cage for Nora, the protagonist

A Dolls’ House
performed by Open Space Theatre group at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 21 November 2016 and The Lowestoft Journal, 25 November 2016

A Doll’s House, Ibsen’s dark classic drama, is less about a woman’s rights than her need to discover who she is without reference to men’s control and approval.

The central character played by Cathy Gill in a performance that should be shown to acting students, leaves her husband, his ‘dolls’’ house and their children in what was in the 1870s, deeply shocking.

She does this after the consequences of her own lies to cover up an intended good act begin to emerge with devastating effect and more potently, her own husband’s (excellently unlikeable Darren France) blatant hypocrisy and double standards stun her.

Peter Sowerbutts, the terminally ill friend, plays a compelling deadpan of worldly weariness, cynicism and mystery, David Blood inhabits the slightly sinister fraudster who is redeemed by love while Mia Chadwick as the friend, strikes a balance between her own needs and those of the protagonist.

They’re ably supported by Penny Martin and Ruby Potter as servants and two adorable young children.

David Green has deftly directed a masterpiece, with his eye for irony, secrets, humour and real understanding of characters the audience engages with.