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Fucking Ibsen Takes Time

nytheatre.com review by Scott Mendelsohn
August 15, 2005

Fucking Ibsen Takes Time takes a funny conceit—Nora and Torvald Helmer from A Doll’s House and Hedda and George Tesman from Hedda Gabler take up residence in the home of Mrs. Alving and her son Oswald from Ghosts—and strings it into a successful, insightful farce. Playwright Erick Herrscher, director Benjamin Mosse, and their accomplished cast of classically trained actors skewer the excesses of these characters with respect and joy. They achieve the froth and zing of this most demanding of forms, and their ambition is matched by their level of accomplishment. The show deserves to be one of the hot tickets of FringeNYC.Herrscher provides a steady stream of jokes and gags for the play. But as the plots move and intersect in logical and often funny ways, Herrscher shows real insight. I cared about the characters’ development. Nora Helmer’s flightiness is taken to alcoholic, sex-crazed extremes, but always acutely written, and played by Marnye Young with comedic gusto and precision. Christianna Nelson brings an off-kilter glee to Hedda’s threats and machinations that had me rooting for her when she starts burning manuscripts and the Alvings’ orphanage. Stefani Katarina proves a standout as Hilda-Thea Wangel-Parish-Pixler-Linde-“AlmostSloness”-Elvstead. Playing the dear school chum from the past who so often figures in the exposition of family secrets in Ibsen’s plays, Katarina brings a poise and simplicity to the proceedings that allow the entangled plots to fly by, and the jokes to shine through.One of Herrscher’s richest inventions is unfortunately foiled by sloppy direction and an unfocused, apparently uninformed performance. During the play, a mysterious Stranger (Jacob Blumer), a la Peer Gynt, comes into the house. Nora, Hedda, and Mrs. Alving all recognize him as a character from their play. This Stranger, however, does not know any of them and manages to wriggle his way through by allowing them all to believe what they choose. This classic gag provides a very effective hook that spans the entire play. He is ultimately revealed, at a turning point in the play, to be Noel Coward—a very funny absurdist touch that manages to seem just right. Unfortunately, this secret has been revealed in the advertising for the play, and in the falsely exaggerated British accent and mugging of the actor. Were the actor to keep his secret and find the deadpan drollery for which Noel Coward is rightly famous, it could imbue the play with a deep sense of mystery, menace even, with a much greater comedic payoff.The second act is too long, and there is an unnecessary and pretentious coda that has little to do with what has gone before. There may also be moments—even in the title—that display a crudeness for its own sake. But overall, this play and production gleams with the wit of a Charles Ludlam, and ultimately does justice to the greatness in Ibsen’s plays.