THEATER REVIEW : A ‘House’ Divided : San Clemente Production of the Ibsen Classic Is Effective but Cries Out for Subtler Portrayals

The San Clemente Community Theater’s “A Doll’s House” takes many wrong turns along its edgy, hyper-flexing way, but there’s something fundamentally effective about it nonetheless.

Director Robert Berman’s primary thrust is to give juice to Ibsen’s dry classic about Nora, the “doll-wife” who finally rebels against her bullying, patronizing husband. As this antsy production moves ahead, you can almost read Berman’s thoughts: “How do I make this entertaining for a community-theater audience?”

One way is to have Christi Sweeney and Ken Meyers take huge, often amateurish bites out of Nora and Torvald. These two don’t play it safe, and they don’t play it quiet, but their performances do give us an idea of what motivates Ibsen’s characters.

“A Doll’s House,” despite its feminist fame as one of the first literary pleas for social and domestic equality, is not one of Ibsen’s subtlest dramas, and this production doesn’t act as if it were.

The results can be unintentionally amusing.

The audience had to laugh during Friday’s performance when Nora, faced with Torvald discovering that she’s made a few perilous financial missteps on the road to independence, asks her friend, Kristine (Kerene Barnard), if her distress is obvious.

Obvious? Sweeney makes Nora a walking nervous breakdown, a combination of forced gaiety and escalating desperation. But theatergoers also applauded near the end, when Nora stands up to Torvald; it meant success for the troubled heroine, and more than a little success for Sweeney. Strip away the frantic gestures, draw in more, and the success would be fuller.

Meyers is more restrained than Sweeney during much of the play, but he does throw the window open wide in the last, tumultuous scene. He goes too far (the melodramatics almost parody what Torvald is all about), but up until then we’ve understood how self-absorbed and pompous Nora’s husband is.

There’s something lost, though, in two key supporting roles. Frank Vibrans is humorously cynical as the dying Dr. Rank, but the depth of his depression, relieved only by an attraction to Nora, isn’t plumbed enough.

And Richard Erickson fails to bring dimension to Krogstad--his change of heart from a bitterly vengeful man to a moralistic one is difficult to grasp in this portrayal.

As for stage values, Diane Green’s period costumes stand out, but Paul Vogler’s set of Nora and Torvald’s living room is also nicely done. Ed Howie’s lighting, however, is disappointing; it doesn’t seem to change throughout the production.

* “A Doll’s House,” Cabrillo Playhouse, 202 Avenida Cabrillo, San Clemente. Wednesday-Saturday at 8 p.m. through June 19, with a 2 p.m. matinee on June 12. $10. (714) 492-0465. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.

Christi Sweeney: Nora Helmer

Elly Miller: Anne Marie

Ed Barraza: Delivery Man

Ken Meyers: Torvald Helmer

Frank Vibrans: Dr. Rank

Kerene Barnard: Kristine Linde

A San Clemente Community Theater production of Henrik Ibsen’s play. Directed by Robert Berman. Set by Paul Volger. Costumes by Diane Green. Lights and sound by Ed Howie.