By Harriet Mancey-barratt

Lauded by independent thinkers upon its first performance, A Doll's House has long been the theatrical pet of feminists and literary critics alike. Mapping the breakdown of a marriage in direct relationship with a woman's personal growth of understanding, the play deals with gender roles and sexual power in a revolutionary way.

Yet, in order to justify the continued interest in Ibsen, theatre companies must present a time of previous political tension with enough sympathy and innovation to render it either realistic or relevant. Ibsen's work, relying on subtlety of expression as it does, can easily be produced rather two-dimensionally, and no-one wants to listen to a play being read - it needs to be acted.

The official blurb for Theatre Babel's production of A Doll's House states that it 'explores the corrosive and disturbing relationship between power, money and sex.' Power, money and sex there may have been, but the near lack of any dramatic comment on the relationship between the three undermined the clarity of the script. Minimalism works when the stripped-away performance signifies an underlying meaning; without this, it's just a little turgid.

As such, the performances were rather disjointed. I felt as if the five actors were unsure of how to present their roles convincingly. The part of Torvald was well-directed, with his brusque high-handedness bringing several laughs, but Nora's 'little girl' act was frankly irritating in its patent lack of reality.

Perhaps this is slightly harsh. The set for this production was interesting - a family Christmas scene, which the actors gradually dismantled between every scene. The music was well chosen - mainly Schubert, with ordered harmony portraying disordered emotion, but its timing had, inappropriately, something of the horror film's cliff-hanger about it. This caused a muffled chuckle every time it occurred - presumably not the artistic director's intention.

On the whole, then, the attempt at an 'intriguingly obscure' production failed. I've learnt my lesson; Ibsen done well can bring out the political, emotional and moral subtleties of the plot. Done badly, in the words of Winnie the Pooh about the general state of his brain, 'it just didn't.'