In presenting "A Doll's House" the Repertory Theatre Company has attempted something very dangerous. Ibsen is a mass of ill sorted elements and to put his old-fashioned attacks in the name of "sincerity" and the individual upon conventional morality and sentimentalism in their proper place and to make a drama out of one of his plays requires great acting.

In the face of such trying conditions the company has done remarkably well. Miss Warren plays the role of the wife, the psychological changes of whom constitute the dramatic action, with a great deal of energy. In fact, she is some-times so eager that she gets ahead of the play and on one occasion is insulted before the words are uttered. Her breathlessness ruins many of her effects, but her vitality should win the favour of everyone. Mr. Roberts plays the absurdly romantic husband and self-centered statue of respectability even more ably. His part, however, is much simpler; he undergoes no upheaval and merely gets angry and then weakly desperate. Mr. Sircom, as the revengeful person who starts all the trouble, is impossible. Miss Birkbeck and Mr. Cleugh have succeeded in making themselves quite unnecessary.

Although this production is worth seeing, a doubt cannot but arise whether Ibsen justifies the effect which his plays require. For, after all, the dramatisation of what would have made an excellent novel is bound to be disappointing.