Venue: India Habitat Centre
Date: 24 August, 2014

New Delhi Players
Director : Basab Bhattacharya

Henrik Ibsen, the renowned playwright, lived and worked in the nineteenth century. His works are still relevant and are widely produced even now. Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is arguably the most performed play in the world and has had thousands of adaptations in various languages. This play in three acts is far sighted. In an era of male domination, this play charts the journey of a simple housewife, living first under the shadows of her father, and later her husband, to an individual in pursuit of self exploration. Many of us can relate to this idea any today.

Hence it was disappointing that the theatre group New Delhi Players made a shoddy show of this classic. First, the actors frequently forgot their lines – we counted 9 slips and then we gave up. Moreover, the script seemed to be a direct translation of nineteenth century English. Consequently, the dialogues sounded artificial and the theme convoluted that after a point, the audience lost interest.

Although the set design was smart, this production requires serious editing and several rehearsals before it is featured again on professional stage.