Given all the elements necessary for a successful production; a name play by a great author, a sympathetic audience, and a cast including several competent actors, the current production of "A Doll's House" by all theatrical standards ought to be a successful one. Such, however, is not the case.

The most outstanding features of the current performance are a glaring disunity of direction, bad characterization, and bad technique, all of which serve to transform Ibsen's social drama into a mere drawing room conflict between husband and wife.

In "adapting" the play from the original, several changes have been made, and all of them for the worse. Foremost has been the elimination of the role of the Helmers' children from active stage roles. Since in the original play they serve as a means of broadening Nora's character and giving her motives foundation, their loss is almost irreparable. In meeting the difficulties brought on by this omission, Dale Melbourne as Nora falls far short of possessing the ability to make the character seem real. The only impressions she leaves on the audience as she makes her exit at the last curtain are those of annoyance at her finger-twiddling, fast speaking portrayal of a stock Nora.

The adaptation has also lost much of the dramatic effect which Ibsen originally wrote into the last act. Here, deciding that she must fight against the social convention of the Victorian Era, Nora decides to leave her husband. But the emotional impact which the climax originally possessed has been entirely lost, as the script drags unwholesomely at that point. Too much time is lost in meaningless dialogue between Nora and her husband to retain any of the effect.