Playing with A Doll’s House: Visions for a Play Essay

The story apparently being a vivid description of simple yet elegant looks of the author’s time, Henrik Ibsen’s novel, A Doll’s House, would be gorgeously played with costumes and dress designs that better suits the characters’ individual personalities. The set design, needing only to show the Helmer’s apartment, the living room in particular, would have to be stylish with its house embellishments while not looking too expensive at the same time. Having a yuletide season as the time setting for the story, the production would have to make use of Christmas decorations, specifically a Christmas tree as it is an important material for Act 1 where Nora just bought it and would have it lined with gifts for her children. The tree would have to be decorated later perhaps with bright colors as red and silver balls and ribbons for accentuation. A set of sofa for the living room would also be required as most of the scenes would have the characters sit while they are talking. A glass table and some cabinets or ornaments to decorate the other parts of the room would be quite nice to add some favorable atmosphere to certain scenes such as during the discussion between Nora and Krogstad and the climactic argument between her and Torvald. For the characters clothes, that of Nora would have to be the most eye-catching. She’s shown to have a love for fashion and shopping and therefore needs to have at least three set of costumes for the whole play; one is her outside clothes together with a cloak and home clothes for Act 1; an average dress for Christmas day in Act 2; and an Italian costume for Act 3 which is seen after she and Torvald came back to the living room from their upstairs neighbor’s party. As for Torvald and Krogstad’s costumes, theirs need not be extravagant; a long-sleeved polo with matching ties and/or vest would mostly be it. Mrs. Linde would make use of a plain monochrome or basic two-colored dress while Dr. Rank, to emphasize his profession may need of reading glasses for props and a light colored coat. Since the plot of the play would revolve around the living room, the materials for the set would not be a problem and the floor plan could be easily adjusted to fit both the Lowe Theater and the Kaye Playhouse on the campus.