Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : Class Takes a Look at a Modern ‘Doll House’

Golden West College has found an unusual way of teaching students about famed playwright Henrik Ibsen: a special videotape of an original play by literature instructor Joanne Kashdan entitled “A Yuppie Doll House--1986.”

The play is Kashdan’s updated version of Ibsen’s classic “A Doll’s House.”

In Kashdan’s version, the clashing figures in the drama are Warren Houseman, an advertising executive, and his wife Lisa. They are the modern counterparts to Ibsen’s characters, Torvald and Nora.

Kashdan’s play ends, like Ibsen’s, with the wife leaving. “Just as Torvald cannot and will not alow Nora to be an authentic human being, likewise, Warren cannot and will not accept Lisa’s existence as an individual, apart from his sphere of domination,” Kashdan said.

Kashdan is using the videotape of her play in her literature classes. A copy is also available in the Golden West College library. The college theater department staged the play, and the telemedia department did the taping.