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A DOLL'S HOUSE. By Henrik Ibsen. Directed by Carey Pcrloff. American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco. 17 January 2004.
When the American Conservatory Theater included Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in its 2003-04 season, it committed itself to a formidable undertaking. Any revival of this classic inherits an audience so thoroughly familiar with the story that it cannot appease theatregoers through groundling fare alone. Familiarity with the play, along with the development of feminism, have resulted in an audience that is unlikely to consider the play inherently radical and controversial. If the play is to have an effect, the director must make bold choices. If the entire ACT production, directed by Carey Perloff, could be judged by its finale, it would have been a triumph. René Augesen as Nora was haunting in her trembling silence; her eyes and body delicately-yet beautifully-expressed the upsurge of emotions for which Nora did not yet have words. Stephen Caffrey as Torvald enthusiastically mined the depths of the patriarch's narcissism yet still rendered him remarkably sympathetic; his anguished vulnerability was unmistakable when the curtain-and his world-came hurtling down. Unfortunately, great plays demand more than great endings from their revivals; they equally demand strong complementary performances, innovative and insightful design, and visionary directingmuch of which was unevenly realized in, if not conspicuously absent from, this production.
Many of the design elements were appealing both visually and symbolically, but the discrete components, in the end, appeared...