Well-cast “A Doll’s House” as timely as ever

In a patriarchy — a descriptor that fits damn near every society ever, including ours — men have more than their fair share of power and are using it (intentionally and otherwise) to hold women down. Therefore, justice dictates that men use their power to bring the scales into balance. 

In 1879, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen channeled the power of his pen toward that goal with A Doll’s House, a protofeminist examination of gender inequity. It’s a theme that’s only become increasingly relevant in recent years with the emergence of the “womanosphere,” and good writing is always good writing, and Long Beach Shakespeare Company has put together an excellent production, so there’s no reason to dismiss this show as stale or dated just because it’s of a different time and place. 

Nora Helmer (Ceili Lang) thinks she’s living a charmed life. Her husband Torvald (Ben Trotter) dotes on his “little songbird,” and their three little children are living dolls. After some lean years at the beginning of their marriage — including Torvald’s severe illness — their fortunes are on the rise. But a secret financial deal Nora made with Krogstad (Jonah Goger) to help Torvald get the lifesaving treatment he needed threatens to destroy their domestic peace.

Needless to say, without a good Nora — who has one hell of a character arc — A Doll’s House ain’t gonna work. But from ignorance-is-bliss and fear to steely resolve and ultimate epiphany, Lang excels at every stage of Nora’s journey. And although for most of the play Torvald is a well-meaning but nonetheless relatively one-dimensional sexist, Trotter imbues him with sufficient humanity so that it’s completely believable when he takes ownership of his role in stopping Nora’s from being a complete person. The play’s final scene is a true emotional and thematic climax if ever there was one, and Trotter and Lang play it for everything it’s worth.

The supporting cast is equally well suited to their tasks. In a somewhat thankless yet central role, Jonah Goger makes us feel that Krogstad may be a fundamentally decent man despite his dubious choices. Ari Hagler plays the Helmers’ closest friend with affable dignity, and Sallie Eskins is quietly memorable in a role whose emotional valence pivots on a single scene.

Making his debut with Long Beach Shakespeare Co., Michael Hovance’s direction is thoughtful and unobtrusive. No scene or snatch of dialog is rushed, allowing all of Ibsen’s nuance to get across. 

Nonetheless, for every laugh Ibsen wrote into the script, about half the members of the opening-night audience found 20, as if we were being treated to an absurdist farce. To be sure, some of this obtuse cackling emanated from ethnocentric ignorance, people able to hear Victorian-era sexism only through 21st-century, shitcom-clogged ears. But some seemed to stem from the pathetic need many in today’s world have not to let five minutes of a performance, film, etc., go by without in some way attracting attention to themselves.  

It’s too bad, because by not dialing in to what Long Beach Shakespeare Co. was faithfully broadcasting, these misguided folk surely failed to fully grasp Ibsen’s masterful dramatization of the insidious underbelly of patriarchy: how it can stunt a woman’s growth to the point that she is unwittingly complicit in her own infantilization. The playwright imagined that by confronting this fact head-on, both women and men might transcend their sorry state and perhaps eventually meet on even ground.

We’re closer now to that consummation devoutly to be wished than we were in the 19th century, but a lot of us still haven’t gotten the message. Like nothing else, great art can show us who we are and who we ought to be. A century-and-a-half later, A Doll’s House is continuing to do just that.

A Doll’s House at Long Beach Shakespeare Company
Times: Fri–Sat 8:00 p.m., Sun 2:00 p.m.
The show runs through September 14.
Cost: $16.50 to $26.50 (including fees)
Details: (562) 997-1494; LBshakespeare.org 
Venue: Helen Borgers Theatre, 4250 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach