THE 1041C Theater Reviews

When first hearing about the play A Doll’s House, I immediately associated it with The Stepford Wives. So yes, I was pretty amused to see how different the two were. Going down the stairs to the auditorium for the second round of readings, I was apprehensive that it was to be the same actors/actresses that were in Medea. I was prepared to struggle to believe all the characters and follow along with the story.

Thankfully, it was an improvement from the last showing. The orchestrator of the whole shebang had some quirky little jokes about how short the play was, as well as the motives of its audience, although it felt a bit contrived if you were one of the earlier to arrive, since he repeated his jokes. The play began pretty suddenly, but its simplicity helped me to stay focus, and follow it well. I think in this case the style of the play helped the lack of setting and resources these actors had to deal with.

The quality of these actors were also far greater. They embodied the characters more believably, and had somewhat more subtle actions than the previous performance. Each actor also seemed to fit their role better physically as well as “emotionally.” I felt the ignorant oppression of the husband, the oblivious flitty love of the wife, and the depression and hatred from the villain of the play. I have to say, however, he sometimes played too hard on the ratlike mafioso accent when he got into the character. It was a little bothersome.

Although the play was shortened, I almost feel like it was appropriate for its audience. Many of us, unfortunately, have extremely short attention spans. I found the abridged version to be an adequate summary of the play.

I would not say this reading was perfect, but it was by far much better than its preceding counterpart. At times, actions and dialogues were a bit overdramatic, but the simplicity of the play and its built in subtleties downplayed the overacting. The actors had pretty good chemistry, and I enjoyed the twist at the end.