Press

Anthony Newley Hits Venice

Anthony Newley Hits Venice

By Suzy Williams



Run, don’t walk to The Pacific Resident Theatre on Venice between Shell and Oakwood, to see one of the most charming, heart-warming musical evenings you’ve experienced. This compact, brilliant little revue with no intermission has 26 fantastic songs that flow together with a wee plot that ties it tidily. For even though Anthony Newley is no longer with us physically, his music lives. (I had the pleasure of attending Pure Imagination last week with Venice’s own songbird extraordinaire, Kathy Leonardo, who worked with Newley on tour in the seventies and had tales to tell of his on-the-road shenanigans).

First, designer Norman Scott’s setting: a classic and cozy, black and shiny nightclub, circa 1963 with risers, all kinds of subtle lighting, long silvery-black mellomar curtains and a baby grand piano. Where else can you find such an evocative atmosphere today?

A pianistic fanfare, and out step our colorfully “Mad Men”- dressed cast, taking their places all about the stage, and launching into a series of familiar melodies and moves we remember from watching all those variety shows on television way back when. But who knew so many were written by Anthony Newley (and his partner Leslie Bricusse)? Yes, we may know that Newley was responsible for “What Kind of Fool am I?” and “Who Can I Turn To?,” but how about “On a Wonderful Day Like Today,” “The Candyman,” and…”Goldfinger”??

The lovable cast has a knock-out, fixate-able blonde, Jane Noseworthy, who, in “Typically English” does a great character study of an Englishwoman, a German, a Russian and an American girl, all in one breath, it seemed. Sami Staitman is 13 and has a robust voice and a joie de vivre that makes one optimistic for youth and all mankind. Tap dancer and tenor Shaun Baker, brings all his New York finesse to the show, and Robert Jacobs, tall and striking, plays the seductive bad boy to the hilt. Dana Dewes is the heart and soul of the production, with her mane of dark tresses and the glamourest of dresses. This evening of Newley music, newly appreciated, is feel-good entertainment. Why not step out to the PRT and feel good? Yes!

Santa Monica Daily Press Reviews A View From The Bridge

Santa Monica Daily Press:
Reviews

A View From The Bridge

“The staging is impeccable, the acting’s top notch. Congratulations to Artistic Director Marilyn Fox for both the play’s direction and the company’s.” and that might be good for the quote on the main page.

All in the family

It’s a rare play these days that can cause an audience to gasp at a kiss. This actually happened.

Playwright Arthur Miller, best known for “Death of a Salesman” and “All My Sons,” writes about everyman characters whose lives become tragic.

In “View from the Bridge,” now onstage in a critically-lauded production at Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, we meet Eddie Carbone (Vince Melocchi), a Brooklyn longshoreman who considers himself an honest provider and husband, who gives without asking for anything in return.

His wife’s cousins from Sicily are coming to stay with them in their tiny apartment, and Eddie lectures the family never to answer questions if immigration officials come to their door because these cousins will be here illegally. The cousins have taken the risk because they and their war-torn nation are desperately impoverished. Marco (Satiar Pourvasei) has a family and a sick son whom he hopes to support and return to; young Rodolpho (Jeff Lorch) is a freewheeling, high-spirited young man, who loves to sing, and wants to “make it” in America.

Eddie has raised his niece Catherine (Lisa Cirincione) since her mother died, but lately his concern for this affectionate, grateful and now fully-developed young woman, has become fierce within him, making him overly protective of her virtue, a fact duly noted by his long-suffering wife Beatrice (Melissa Weber Bales), who comments that they haven’t been intimate for many months.

Rodolpho wins Catherine’s heart, inciting Eddie’s jealousy. He tells Catherine Rodolpho only wants her to gain citizenship, and accuses Rodolpho of being “not right” (i.e., gay) because he likes to sing and has a way with clothing.

The story’s arc is no surprise having been foretold by the lawyer Alfieri (Robert Lesser), who serves as the Greek Chorus, giving us the bigger picture as the play unfolds, and asking us to consider what it means to be a good man.

Eddie will incur the wrath of Marco not only for insulting his brother Rodolpho, but because Eddie has done the unforgiveable: he has called immigration on them himself.

The tragedy unfolds as you’d expect it to, but the greater tragedy is that Eddie’s passion for Catherine has blinded him to his own flaws, his hypocritical self-righteousness and his failure to do the right thing by her. Eddie cannot tell himself the truth and it destroys him.

The staging is impeccable, the acting’s top notch. Congratulations to Artistic Director Marilyn Fox for both the play’s direction and the company’s.

“A View from the Bridge” runs at Pacific Resident Theatre, one of our local treasures, located at 703 Venice Blvd., in Venice. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. Purchase tickets online at https://pacificresidenttheatre.org or call (310) 822-8392.

A View From The Bridge’…a powerful production at Pacific Resident Theatre

A View From The Bridge’…a powerful production at Pacific Resident Theatre
The Examinder
July 13, 2013
By Joan Alperin-Schwartz

When I think of brilliant playwrights, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Chekov and of course… Arthur Miller, immediately come to mind…

I always jump at the chance to see any of their plays, but no matter how great the play is on the page, in the hands of a bad actor or director, the results could be disastrous.

However, on my way to the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, to see ‘A View From The Bridge, directed by Marilyn Fox and Dana Jackson, I knew that the production would be anything but disastrous.

After all, over the years, I’ve seen numerous plays at this theatre complex and I have never been disappointed. This acting company does some of the best work in town.

For those of you unfamiliar with Miller’s play…Eddie Carbone (the wonderful Vince Melocchi) is an Italian American longshoreman who resides in Red Hook, Brooklyn with his wife, Beatrice (Melissa Weber Bales) and their niece, Catherine (Lisa Cirincione)

Eddie, to put it simply, has the hots for Catherine Over the years, he’s managed to keep these incestuous feelings hidden, even from himself…But now that Catherine is 17 and about to go out into the world, this is getting harder and harder from him to do…

Eddie is starting to unravel and even, Beatrice sees that something is not quite right with her husband…

When Catherine gets a job offer, Eddie tries to talk her out of it…which prompts Beatrice to ask him…’You gonna keep her in the house all her life’ Eddie replies something to the effect…’that’s crazy…Of course not’, but we know that’s exactly what he’d like to do.

If that’s not bad enough, Beatrice and Eddie haven’t made love in months and when she tries to bring it up to him (in one of the plays most heartbreaking moments) he quickly shut her down. Eddie is a man with enormous emotions that are way too complex for him to understand or articulate. On one hand, he tries to be a good man and do the ‘right’ thing’ for his family.

We see that clearly, when he agrees to house Beatrice’s immigrant cousins, Marco (Satiar Pourvasei) and Rudolpho (Jeff Lorch) who have come over from Italy illegally to work.

Unbeknownst to everyone, this one small act of generosity, will lead to Eddie’s downfall and the unraveling of his family. Eddie Carbone is one of those great tragic figures who we will remember long after we leave the theatre. Rounding out this excellent cast is Robert Lesser (Alfieri) the local attorney and narrator of the piece.

This is a must-see production for anyone who loves theatre. ‘A View From The Bridge’ opened Saturday, June 29, 2013 and closes Sunday, August 25th. Performances: Thursday through Saturday at 8pm…Sunday at 3pm.
Tickets: $20-$28: Group rates available. Location: 703 Venice Blvd, Venice CA 90291 Reservations: Call 310-822-8392 or at www.PacificResidentTheatre.com

A View From the Bridge Reviewed by Dany Margolies

Lisa Cirincione and Vince Melocchi Photo by Vitor Martins

“I want my respect!” insists Eddie Carbone continually—and ambiguously. Sadly for him, but thrillingly for audiences since 1955, when Arthur Miller’s magnificently crafted play premiered, Miller’s protagonist Eddie has no idea what respect means nor how to earn it.

Eddie lives in Brooklyn with his well-worn wife, Beatrice, and her sister’s 17-year-old daughter, Catherine. Beatrice’s two young male cousins are arriving from Italy, illegally, to stay with the Carbones until the two can find enough work to support themselves and send money home. Catherine becomes sweet on one of them, unlocking a variety of previously suppressed undercurrents.

Under the co-direction of Marilyn Fox and Dana Jackson, the script’s crushing emotionality quietly settles over the audience, leaving us shaken and saddened for Eddie’s inability to handle what could have been a wonderful life. Only a few moments of direction don’t ring true: Choreographed fights are too timid, particularly considering the proximity of the audience, and recorded music playing over the last lines of dialogue distract from rather than enhance the pathos of the story. Otherwise, this is a thoughtful, measured, well-rehearsed production, from casting through the faded wallpaper.

Playing Eddie, Vince Melocchi is stunningly good—truthful and tightly lidded, so the actor swallows Eddie’s tears and earns the audience’s affection rather than bawling histrionically and demanding it. Fox and Jackson have cast an everyman rather than a matinee idol, which makes Eddie’s romantic inclinations frighteningly real rather than cartoonish.

Lisa Cirincione has cut Catherine out of cloth of another time. The character has the energy, joy, and naïveté of a 1950s teen. Melissa Weber Bales makes a lovely, unappreciated Beatrice—once a pretty girl just like Catherine, now a frustrated, exhausted, housebound wife.

Miller enhances the Greek tragedy of his tale with a Greek chorus in the single person of local lawyer Mr. Alfieri. The craft with which Robert Lesser handles the role establishes the production’s tone from the outset. This is top-quality acting, at its apex when Lesser and Melocchi share a scene in Alfieri’s office.

The play takes place on Staci Walters’s and Jeffery P. Eisenmann’s extraordinarily well-designed, well-built set. The construction is solid (slammed doors don’t shake the walls), the brickwork looks real, and that aged wallpaper is a miracle of either savvy shopping or artistic distressing.

July 6, 2013
June 29–Aug. 25. 703 Venice Blvd. Street parking or free parking behind the theaters. There is wheelchair access. Thu.-Sat. 8pm, Sun. 3 pm. $20-28, group rates available. Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express welcome. (310) 822-8392.

www.PacificResidentTheatre.com

STAGEHAPPENINGS.COM by Carol Kaufman Segal

STAGEHAPPENINGS.COM
A View From the Bridge
Review by Carol Kaufman Segal

A View From the Bridge by playwright Arthur Miller is the third show of Pacific Resident Theatre/s 26th season. It is directed infallibly by Artistic Director Marilyn Fox and Dana Jackson and features a cast of stupendous talent.

The play is about an Italian-American character, Eddie Carbone (Vince Melocchi), his wife Beatrice (Melissa Weber Bales) and their orphaned niece Catherine (Lisa Cirincione) who live in a run-down Italian community overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. Catherine has been with Eddie and Beatrice since she was a very young child. Now that she has grown into a beautiful young woman, Eddie, who has always been very protective of her, seems more so and now appears to have incestuous feelings towards her. It seems that Beatrice, who never actually accuses Eddie, has suspicions regarding those feelings, particularly when he seems to have lost interest in her as a husband normally would have.

The people in the community are very protective of illegal immigrants. So when Beatrie’s two cousins Marco (Satiar Pourvasei) and Rodolpho (Jeff Lorch) arrive from Italy looking for a better life in America, they are welcomed (and honored) by Beatrice and Eddie to stay with them. Marco has a starving family in Italy who he hopes to be able to support through work in the United States before finally returning to Italy. Rodolpho is a younger man, much more inclined to be less serious. He loves to dance and sing, even likes to cook and sew. These qualities make Eddie feel uneasy about him, especially as Catherine and Rodolpho begin spending time together. His hospitality wanes, and he tries to convince Catherine that Rodolpho is “not right.”

Catherine and Rodopho finally decide to get married and Eddie, in desperation, seeks help from his attorney friend Alfieri (Robert Lesser, who also narrates the story).

Alfieri tells Eddie that there is nothing that he can do to help him, that there is no law against a young couple falling in love. His only alternative would be to report the two immigrants to the United States Immigration Service, and this is something Eddie cannot do.

At home Eddie continues to pick on Rodolpho and to insult him. Then he offers to teach him to box, giving him the opportunity to hurt him. In response, Marco challenges Eddie in a show of strength and when he proves that he is much the stronger, he lets Eddie know that he had better watch his step when it comes to Rodolpho.

Once again Eddie returns for help from Alfieri after seeing Rodolpho and Catherine coming out of her bedroom together. When Alfieri advises him to let love run its course, Eddie ignores him and calls the Immigration Service. He returns home to discover that, despite his urgings against Rodolpho, Catherine has decided to marry him. He also discovers that two more immigrants have arrived at their home and all four have moved into the apartment upstairs. When the immigration officers arrive, they arrest the four immigrants, but Marco breaks free, Eddie follows him, berating him in the street. When his friends and family realize Eddie betrayed the immigrants, he is no longer morally accepted by them.

Rodolpho is released and allowed to stay in America since he will be marrying Catherine. Marco promises not to harm Eddie and is, therefore, released on bail. Eddie refuses to attend the wedding and what ensues in the finale is related by Alfieri as he finalizes the narration of his story.

As previously mentioned, Marilyn Fox and Dana Jackson have directed this emotionally tragic play with perfection. The actors, from the main characters to the smaller roles, are awesome, but I have to highlight Melocchi as being especially outstanding. This is a play that anyone who really loves great theater should not miss.

I recommend it highly.

A View From the Bridge plays Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 4 PM, throughAugust 25, at the Pacific Resident Theatre, located at 703 Venice Blvd., in Venice. Tickets are available online at www.PacificResidentTheatre.com, or by phone at (310) 822-8391.

Pacific Resident Theatre’s ‘A View From The Bridge’ Delivers Explosive Drama

Pacific Resident Theatre’s ‘A View From The Bridge’ Delivers Explosive Drama

Lisa Cirincione and Vince Melocchi in “A View From The Bridge” at Pacific Resident Theatre. Photo – Vitor Martins

When one thinks of Arthur Miller’s body of work, one doesn’t immediately think “chronicler of Italian-American experience,” but with A View From The Bridge, he revealed a further breadth of his talent. The lead characters of most of Miller’s plays are imperfect men, from Willy Loman and John Proctor, and Eddie Carbone from View fits right in. The play has the bruising power of Greek tragedy, where character inexorably determines fate. The new production at Pacific Resident Theatre does Miller proud, with Vince Melocchi’s explosive lead highlighting a superb ensemble.

In 1950s New York City, dockworker Eddie Carbone (Vince Melocchi) lives in a tenement with his wife Beatrice (Melissa Weber Bales) and his niece Catherine (Lisa Cirincione). Eddie is overprotective of Catherine, having raised her from childhood, to the annoyance of Beatrice, who sees the girl as an adult. This situation is exacerbated when Beatrice has two relatives from Italy, Marco (Satiar Pourvasei) and Rodolpho (Jeff Lorch), move into their apartment to illegally work in the U.S. Eddie notices Catherine and Rodolpho falling for each other, and the confused turmoil of emotion this raises in Eddie leads to tragedy for all concerned.

Melocchi centers the show with a performance of physical and emotional intensity that doesn’t neglect subtlety as Eddie wars with himself and everyone else. The scene where Eddie intimidates Rodolpho via a “boxing lesson” is a master class in ratcheting up tension worthy of Michael Chiklis or James Gandolfini at their best. Bales has the difficult task of portraying a woman who loves and despises her husband simultaneously, and she pulls it off beautifully. Beatrice is the only character in the family with clear knowledge of what is transpiring within Eddie, and Bales makes it clear that Beatrice is trying to avoid tragedy from the very beginning. Cirincione excels as Catherine, who both loves and fears Eddie, and she gets the combination of youthful optimism and unexpected moral backbone just right. Lorch is charming and convincing as Rodolpho, and Pourvasei impresses as Marco, whose sober and respectful demeanor is camouflage for a man not to be messed with.

Co-directors Marilyn Fox and Dana Jackson have wisely focused on the quality of the performances here, instead of trying to impose some modern directorial take on the play. The result is an ensemble that rises to the material and delivers excellence. The staging of the final few scenes also deserves mention, with the entire ensemble placed around the theatre, witnesses to the unveiling of Eddie’s sins, adding to the sense of catharsis. Pacific Resident Theatre has long deserved praise for its fine productions of classic plays, and with A View From The Bridge, the company has another winner on its stage.

“A View From The Bridge” plays through August 25 at Pacific Resident Theatre. Tickets are available online.

A View From The Bridge – F. Kathleen Foley Los Angeles Times

July 3, 2013, 4:00 p.m.

In some ways, Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge” is more conventional than other Miller works.

“Death of a Salesman” and “All My Sons” dealt with the tragic underbelly of the American dream. “The Crucible” used the setting of the Salem Witch Trials to decry the McCarthy hearings.

Those plays ground obvious axes to a razor’s edge. First produced in the mid-1950s, “Bridge” is not as thematically obvious. However, in its current production at Pacific Resident Theatre, Miller’s durable drama retains the power to devastate.

The play’s protagonist, Eddie Carbone (Vince Melocchi), is an Italian American longshoreman who lives in a clean but shabby Brooklyn apartment, well-realized in Staci Walters and Jeffery P. Eisenmann’s set design, with his wife, Beatrice (Melissa Weber Bales) and their orphaned niece, Catherine (Lisa Cirincione).

Eddie’s avuncular interest in Catherine has gradually grown into incestuous obsession, an unwholesome interest he refuses to acknowledge, even to himself. When the Carbones take in Beatrice’s immigrant cousins, Marco (Satiar Pourvasei) and Rodolpho (Jeff Lorch), Rodolpho and Catherine fall in love — a development that the increasingly possessive Eddie cannot tolerate.

Meanwhile the narrator of the piece, local attorney Alfieri (Robert Lesser), sadly recounts the disaster he was helpless to prevent.

It’s no wonder that the play has been adapted into opera form at least twice. Although modest in circumstance, its characters have epic emotions that are operatic in scale, while Eddie’s complicity in his own demise has all the elements of Greek tragedy.

The miracle of Miller is that his characters are so eloquently inarticulate. Co-directors Marilyn Fox and Dana Jackson get the blend of working class and Italian dialects just right — the first but necessary step in their wrenchingly truthful staging that, while larger-than-life, never lapses into overstatement.

As for the actors, from Melocchi’s towering Eddie right down to the non-speaking bystanders, you simply won’t see any better.

“A View from the Bridge,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. $20-$28. (310) 822-8392. www.pacificresidenttheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

INGMAR BERGMANN’S “NORA”

INGMAR BERGMANN’S “NORA” – – – – West Los Angeles
Review by Morna Murphy Martell for NOT BORN YESTERDAY

“A Doll’s House,” Henrik Ibsen’s play about a child wife coming to sudden maturity and walking out on her family, opened in 1879 and caused a sensation.

Almost 100 years later, Ingmar Bergman adapted this long-winded play into a tight drama, with only the five major characters, and re-titled it “Nora.”  By focusing on the heart of the relationships and the erotic bond between men and women, this is no longer about women’s equality but rather how much any one person, man or woman, is prepared to sacrifice for love.

In this Pacific Resident Theatre production the entire cast is superb.  Jeanette Driver’s Nora, is a cheerful, loving “girl” who before our eyes transforms into a woman demanding respect; Brad Greenquist, as Torvald, shows us a husband who adores his wife but has not yet realized she is only a dream; Bruce French, as family friend Dr. Rank, is a man dying from loneliness; Martha Hackett, as Nora’s friend Mrs. Linde, portrays a woman whose hard life has made her clear-eyed but not cynical, and Scott Conte, as Krogstad, is especially poignant as a lawyer driven to crooked ways by poverty and hopelessness.

Director Dana Jackson brings the play to life by creating almost cinematic close-ups that illuminate each character’s emotional reality, joy and pain.  All the production values are simple: the set by William Wilday’s suggests the period, as does costume design by Daniella Cartun. Lighting by Noah Ulin, sound by Keith Stevenson and choreography by Elizabeth “Tiggy” McKenzie all serve the play effectively. English translation is by Frederick J. and Lise-Lone Marker.

“NORA” is playing through April 7 at The Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 Venice Boulevard, West LA.  Tickets at www.PacificResidentTheatre.com or phone (310) 822-8392.>

Nora: Anthony Byrnes Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.

NORA Click here for Anthony Byrnes Commentary on NORA at PRT

It’s been a tough couple of years, a sort of family recession for Nora. Looking back, it all started when her husband left his job. He couldn’t find another. Really there was nothing out there. Then he got sick, really sick. There were some major medical bills to be paid. Nora didn’t know what to do. She had to find a way to get the money. She had to save her husband. But how? She couldn’t ask her dad – he was near death too. Her husband was too proud to borrow the money himself. What’s a women to do? All sorts of thoughts raced through Nora’s head. Finally she found a shady Shylock of sorts who’d lend her the money. She’d forge her dad’s signature as a cosigner and worry about all the rest later. What was important was saving her husband.

Sounds like an all too topical story doesn’t it. You can almost imagine the headline.

It’ll shock some of you to know this is the back story for Henrik Ibsen’s classic “A Doll’s House.” Pacific Resident Theater is doing Ingmar Bergman’s stripped down adaptation of Ibsen’s 1871 classic – titled simply “Nora.”

Now, typically when you think of “A Doll’s House” you think of the ending of Nora finding her voice and claiming independence. But what struck me about Bergman’s adaptation, directed at PRT by Dana Jackson, was the backstory. I’ll confess I’ve always found Ibsen’s setup up a little distant and contrived.

Sometimes the times speak to a play as much as a play speaks to the times. Having heard the tragic tales of this great recession we’re all living through, suddenly Nora’s dilemma seemed not only plausible but immediate. It doesn’t hurt that Bergman’s adaptation cuts the roles of the family servants. Sure it still seems odd, especially against the backdrop of robo-signers and $8 billion foreclosure settlements, that such a scandal could come from a forged loan that’s being paid off – nonetheless this production of “Nora” helped me understand the beginning of the play in a way I never had. Nora’s decision to borrow the money felt noble not capricious.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a modern update. We’re still in 1871 with victorian costumes and the cast at PRT treats this very much like a period piece – perhaps too much so. Bergman’s adaptation streamlines the plot down to just under two hours. In addition to the servants, he’s also cut Nora’s children. Who, while they don’t have any formal lines in the original, certainly affect how you think of Nora’s exit at the end.

Highlighted are the sexual politics between Nora and her husband. The quid pro quo of their relationship is all too clear. To make sure we get it, the ultimate scene begins with husband and wife naked in bed. Here’s where I wished PRT’s production had taken Bergman’s cue and stripped away the period style along with the clothing.

After all, like financial crisis, there’s something timeless about two naked people struggling to discover exactly what ‘marriage’ means.

“Nora” plays at the Pacific Resident Theater in Venice

This is Anthony Byrnes Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.

Theatre Times: Nora Worth Looking At

Worth looking at

Nora, the woman at the center of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 A Doll’s House and a pivotal female character for modern drama, returns to Los Angeles by way of Ingmar Bergman’s stripped down adaptation, Nora. Dana Jackson’s staging at the Pacific Resident Theatre continues through February 24, after several extensions.

Nora was one of three adaptations Bergman wrote and directed in 1981. Performed back-to-back during a seven-hour marathon at Munich’s Residenztheater, “The Bergman Project” included Nora, Julie (based on August Strindberg’s 1888 Miss Julie), and Scenes from a Marriage (based on Bergman’s 1973 film of the same name).

Translators Lise-lone Marker and Frederick J. Marker interviewed the director for their 1983 Ingmar Bergman: A Project for the Theatre. They write that he saw the plays forming a dramatic triangle “in which women come to grips with the possibilities of sexual and social emancipation.” His adaptations stripped away theatrical convention to see what he called “the tension that arises when men and women come together,”. . . out of which “something positive can arise – but also something disastrous.”

Jackson and designers William Wilday (set) and Noah Ulin (lights) evoke the original windowless room which Bergman likened to a courtroom. As the play begins, Nora (Jeanette Driver) sits alone. The minimal set piecing includes a sofa, chair, Christmas tree, and two dolls and their toy bed. Her children and housekeeper, speaking roles in Ibsen’s original, are only mentioned in this adaptation. The four remaining characters wait, motionless in dim light, on chairs along the upstage walls.

It is Christmas Eve, and Torvald (Brad Greenquist) enters to reprimand Nora for her holiday spending. She reminds him that there will be plenty of money in two weeks, when becomes bank manager. He dismisses her attempts at money management before their disagreement dissolves into cuddling–clearly their physical relationship is the eight-year marriage’s salvation. Nora then slips out of his embrace for another of their rituals: jumping like a puppy for the Crown notes Torvald holds over her.

Three others will stop by this evening. First, Nora’s long-absent friend Christine Linde (Martha Hackett) arrives seeking a job at the bank. Then Dr. Rank (Bruce French), an aged bachelor in failing health wants to spend what he says will be his last holiday with the flirtatious Nora, the only person he truly loves.

Finally, the unwelcome arrival of bank employee Nils Krogstad (Scott Conte) sets the play on its tragic course. Though never proven, Krogstad was accused of forgery and Torvald plans to dismiss him because of it. His request is ignored, but as he leaves he insists that Nora can change Torvald’s mind. If she fails, Krogstad will tell Torvald about money she secretly borrowed from him.

Terrified of being exposed, she nevertheless is certain Torvald will defend her action, which meant forging a document to secure it. After all she only took on the debt to pay for the vacation doctors insisted would restore his health. But she fails to sway her husband and her secret is exposed.

To her amazement, Torvald renounces her, withdraws all affection and forbids her to raise the children. Greater concern for his reputation is inconceivable to her. Bergman added that they retire to bed–naked in the emptiness of the physical.

Driver’s Nora is flighty at first. Not a woman who is aware of her role and her husband’s true priorities. Her reaction to his dismissing her is devastating. As if a trapdoor opened beneath her, sending her plummeting into the void, she crumbles, slack-jawed with incomprehension. It is a fine moment for the actress.

The Markers also wrote Ingmar Bergman: A Life in the Theater, in which they report that “Most critics saw in Bergman’s production a Nora who, right from the outset of the play, was in possession of the insight that eventually prompts her to leave.”

Credit Jackson and Driver for offering a Nora who appears flighty at first. Not a woman who is aware of her role and her husband’s true priorities. Her reaction to his dismissing her is devastating. As if a trapdoor opened beneath her, sending her plummeting into the void, she crumbles, slack-jawed with incomprehension. It is a fine moment for the actress, and she carries it through to the moment Nora exits the Helmer house and female characters turned a corner–permanently.

Greenquist creates the kind of properly stiff Torvald who can say Nora is “worth looking at,” and think it’s high praise. Hackett’s Linde is especially affecting. She is a woman worn down by years of bad luck, and yet something drives her mutely onward. French’s diminished doctor is quietly hearbreaking.

Daniella Cartun designed the period costumes, Keith Stevenson and Elizabeth “Tiggy” McKenzie collaborated on the music, as well as sound design and choreography, respectively. Rick Garrison is stage manager.

PRODUCTION William Wilday, set; Daniella Cartun, costumes; Noah Ulin, lights; Keith Stevenson, sound; Elizabeth “Tiggy” McKenzie, choreography; Rick Garrison, stage management

HISTORY Bergman first produced his adaptation of A Doll’s House as part of Nora und Julie at Germany’s Residenztheater in April 1981. It was a simultaneous staging of Ibsen’s play, Strindberg’s Miss Julie and an adaptation of his own Scenes from a Marriage. First produced in the United States at Pittsburgh Public Theater, February 1984.