“A Doll’s House,” Henrik Ibsen’s play about a child wife coming to sudden maturity and walking out on her family, opened in 1879 and caused a sensation.

Almost 100 years later, Ingmar Bergman adapted this long-winded play into a tight drama, with only the five major characters, and re-titled it “Nora.”  By focusing on the heart of the relationships and the erotic bond between men and women, this is no longer about women’s equality but rather how much any one person, man or woman, is prepared to sacrifice for love.

In this Pacific Resident Theatre production the entire cast is superb.  Jeanette Driver’s Nora, is a cheerful, loving “girl” who before our eyes transforms into a woman demanding respect; Brad Greenquist, as Torvald, shows us a husband who adores his wife but has not yet realized she is only a dream; Bruce French, as family friend Dr. Rank, is a man dying from loneliness; Martha Hackett, as Nora’s friend Mrs. Linde, portrays a woman whose hard life has made her clear-eyed but not cynical, and Scott Conte, as Krogstad, is especially poignant as a lawyer driven to crooked ways by poverty and hopelessness.

Director Dana Jackson brings the play to life by creating almost cinematic close-ups that illuminate each character’s emotional reality, joy and pain.  All the production values are simple: the set by William Wilday’s suggests the period, as does costume design by Daniella Cartun. Lighting by Noah Ulin, sound by Keith Stevenson and choreography by Elizabeth “Tiggy” McKenzie all serve the play effectively. English translation is by Frederick J. and Lise-Lone Marker.

“NORA” is playing through April 7 at The Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 Venice Boulevard, West LA.  Tickets at www.PacificResidentTheatre.com or phone (310) 822-8392.>

It’s been a tough couple of years, a sort of family recession for Nora. Looking back, it all started when her husband left his job. He couldn’t find another. Really there was nothing out there. Then he got sick, really sick. There were some major medical bills to be paid. Nora didn’t know what to do. She had to find a way to get the money. She had to save her husband. But how? She couldn’t ask her dad – he was near death too. Her husband was too proud to borrow the money himself. What’s a women to do? All sorts of thoughts raced through Nora’s head. Finally she found a shady Shylock of sorts who’d lend her the money. She’d forge her dad’s signature as a cosigner and worry about all the rest later. What was important was saving her husband.

Sounds like an all too topical story doesn’t it. You can almost imagine the headline.

It’ll shock some of you to know this is the back story for Henrik Ibsen’s classic “A Doll’s House.” Pacific Resident Theater is doing Ingmar Bergman’s stripped down adaptation of Ibsen’s 1871 classic – titled simply “Nora.”

Now, typically when you think of “A Doll’s House” you think of the ending of Nora finding her voice and claiming independence. But what struck me about Bergman’s adaptation, directed at PRT by Dana Jackson, was the backstory. I’ll confess I’ve always found Ibsen’s setup up a little distant and contrived.

Sometimes the times speak to a play as much as a play speaks to the times. Having heard the tragic tales of this great recession we’re all living through, suddenly Nora’s dilemma seemed not only plausible but immediate. It doesn’t hurt that Bergman’s adaptation cuts the roles of the family servants. Sure it still seems odd, especially against the backdrop of robo-signers and $8 billion foreclosure settlements, that such a scandal could come from a forged loan that’s being paid off – nonetheless this production of “Nora” helped me understand the beginning of the play in a way I never had. Nora’s decision to borrow the money felt noble not capricious.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a modern update. We’re still in 1871 with victorian costumes and the cast at PRT treats this very much like a period piece – perhaps too much so. Bergman’s adaptation streamlines the plot down to just under two hours. In addition to the servants, he’s also cut Nora’s children. Who, while they don’t have any formal lines in the original, certainly affect how you think of Nora’s exit at the end.

Highlighted are the sexual politics between Nora and her husband. The quid pro quo of their relationship is all too clear. To make sure we get it, the ultimate scene begins with husband and wife naked in bed. Here’s where I wished PRT’s production had taken Bergman’s cue and stripped away the period style along with the clothing.

After all, like financial crisis, there’s something timeless about two naked people struggling to discover exactly what ‘marriage’ means.

“Nora” plays at the Pacific Resident Theater in Venice

This is Anthony Byrnes Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.

Nora, the woman at the center of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 A Doll’s House and a pivotal female character for modern drama, returns to Los Angeles by way of Ingmar Bergman’s stripped down adaptation, Nora. Dana Jackson’s staging at the Pacific Resident Theatre continues through February 24, after several extensions.

Nora was one of three adaptations Bergman wrote and directed in 1981. Performed back-to-back during a seven-hour marathon at Munich’s Residenztheater, “The Bergman Project” included Nora, Julie (based on August Strindberg’s 1888 Miss Julie), and Scenes from a Marriage (based on Bergman’s 1973 film of the same name).

Translators Lise-lone Marker and Frederick J. Marker interviewed the director for their 1983 Ingmar Bergman: A Project for the Theatre. They write that he saw the plays forming a dramatic triangle “in which women come to grips with the possibilities of sexual and social emancipation.” His adaptations stripped away theatrical convention to see what he called “the tension that arises when men and women come together,”. . . out of which “something positive can arise – but also something disastrous.”

Jackson and designers William Wilday (set) and Noah Ulin (lights) evoke the original windowless room which Bergman likened to a courtroom. As the play begins, Nora (Jeanette Driver) sits alone. The minimal set piecing includes a sofa, chair, Christmas tree, and two dolls and their toy bed. Her children and housekeeper, speaking roles in Ibsen’s original, are only mentioned in this adaptation. The four remaining characters wait, motionless in dim light, on chairs along the upstage walls.

It is Christmas Eve, and Torvald (Brad Greenquist) enters to reprimand Nora for her holiday spending. She reminds him that there will be plenty of money in two weeks, when becomes bank manager. He dismisses her attempts at money management before their disagreement dissolves into cuddling–clearly their physical relationship is the eight-year marriage’s salvation. Nora then slips out of his embrace for another of their rituals: jumping like a puppy for the Crown notes Torvald holds over her.

Three others will stop by this evening. First, Nora’s long-absent friend Christine Linde (Martha Hackett) arrives seeking a job at the bank. Then Dr. Rank (Bruce French), an aged bachelor in failing health wants to spend what he says will be his last holiday with the flirtatious Nora, the only person he truly loves.

Finally, the unwelcome arrival of bank employee Nils Krogstad (Scott Conte) sets the play on its tragic course. Though never proven, Krogstad was accused of forgery and Torvald plans to dismiss him because of it. His request is ignored, but as he leaves he insists that Nora can change Torvald’s mind. If she fails, Krogstad will tell Torvald about money she secretly borrowed from him.

Terrified of being exposed, she nevertheless is certain Torvald will defend her action, which meant forging a document to secure it. After all she only took on the debt to pay for the vacation doctors insisted would restore his health. But she fails to sway her husband and her secret is exposed.

To her amazement, Torvald renounces her, withdraws all affection and forbids her to raise the children. Greater concern for his reputation is inconceivable to her. Bergman added that they retire to bed–naked in the emptiness of the physical.

Driver’s Nora is flighty at first. Not a woman who is aware of her role and her husband’s true priorities. Her reaction to his dismissing her is devastating. As if a trapdoor opened beneath her, sending her plummeting into the void, she crumbles, slack-jawed with incomprehension. It is a fine moment for the actress.

The Markers also wrote Ingmar Bergman: A Life in the Theater, in which they report that “Most critics saw in Bergman’s production a Nora who, right from the outset of the play, was in possession of the insight that eventually prompts her to leave.”

Credit Jackson and Driver for offering a Nora who appears flighty at first. Not a woman who is aware of her role and her husband’s true priorities. Her reaction to his dismissing her is devastating. As if a trapdoor opened beneath her, sending her plummeting into the void, she crumbles, slack-jawed with incomprehension. It is a fine moment for the actress, and she carries it through to the moment Nora exits the Helmer house and female characters turned a corner–permanently.

Greenquist creates the kind of properly stiff Torvald who can say Nora is “worth looking at,” and think it’s high praise. Hackett’s Linde is especially affecting. She is a woman worn down by years of bad luck, and yet something drives her mutely onward. French’s diminished doctor is quietly hearbreaking.

Daniella Cartun designed the period costumes, Keith Stevenson and Elizabeth “Tiggy” McKenzie collaborated on the music, as well as sound design and choreography, respectively. Rick Garrison is stage manager.

PRODUCTION William Wilday, set; Daniella Cartun, costumes; Noah Ulin, lights; Keith Stevenson, sound; Elizabeth “Tiggy” McKenzie, choreography; Rick Garrison, stage management

HISTORY Bergman first produced his adaptation of A Doll’s House as part of Nora und Julie at Germany’s Residenztheater in April 1981. It was a simultaneous staging of Ibsen’s play, Strindberg’s Miss Julie and an adaptation of his own Scenes from a Marriage. First produced in the United States at Pittsburgh Public Theater, February 1984.

‘Out There On Fried Meat Ridge Road’ is so entertaining that I’ve seen it not once…but twice.

This is a funny, touching play, written by Keith Stevenson, who also stars in it.

Keith plays JD, a seemingly innocent/naive man, who lives in a small, dirty, rundown motel room somewhere in West Virginia.

One day, JD decides he’d like to expand his circle of friends, so he advertises for a roommate and…

Mitchell (Neil McGowan) a man with sweaty palms and a broken heart, shows up at his door.

Mitchell assumes he was answering an ad to share an apartment…not a dive motel room. Well in all fairness, there are two beds. Of course, one of them is covered in clothing that smells from deer pee.

Anyway, Mitchell, having no where else to go, sticks around and very soon, he is greeted by several damaged, endearing characters that have more to them than meets the eye…Well, almost…

There’s Marlene (Kendrah McKay) an artist, meth addict who’s hopelessly in lover with her cheating boyfriend, Tommy (Jason Huber).

Tommy is a pseudo poet who hails from New Jersey. Yes,he does cheat on his girl friend, but only with women named…Marlene…(even if they way 500 lbs) Tommy’s afraid he’ll forget their name.

Lastly, there’s Flip (Michael Prichard) the owner of this not so fine establishment…..Flip is a quasi racist with a heart of gold. He’s been looking after JD since his mother died.

This is a play that will have you laughing non stop. It will also touch your heart, because in the end…’Out There On Fried Meat Ridge’ is about human connection…Something everyone, wants and needs…even if you’re too screwed up to know it.

Guillermo Cienfuegos did an excellent job of directing these fine actors.

The play runs just a little over one hour.

Tickets are $20.00. Call 310-822-8392 or go to www.PacificResidentTheatre.com to purchase them.

‘Out There On Fried Meat Ridge Road’ opened, April 26, 2012 and plays Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. The last performance is Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 3:00 p.m.

Don’t miss it.

Pacific Resident Theatre is located at 707 Venice Blvd (four blocks west of Lincoln Blvd)

Keith Stevenson and Kendrah McKay in “A Fried Meat Christmas”

The author Kathleen Duey once encountered Ray Bradbury in an elevator and asked what advice he could give a beginner. “Ass glue,” he replied.

It should be sold in stores, because I could use a gallon or two. In fact, I got up from my chair and paced around outside after I finished that last sentence. The biggest problem I find as a writer is that it is so easy not to write. But there is one thing that will keep my butt in the chair — a deadline. More to the point, the fear of not meeting a deadline. So, to finish (start, actually) my first full-length play (70 minute one-act, actually) I forced myself into a deadline.

Keith Stevenson

I’ve belonged to Pacific Resident Theatre since 1998. My first several years at PRT were spent primarily as an actor and sound designer. Then, a few years ago, I joined PRT’s Writers’ Group — a very talented collective, from which many wonderful works have sprung, including Vince Melocchi’s Julia, which ran Off-Broadway after a mainstage production at PRT, and Valerie Dillman’s Sarah’s War, which had a critically-acclaimed run at the Hudson earlier this year after a workshop production at PRT.

In the latter part of 2011, the group decided to present a series of new works. That December, we would hold public readings of full-length plays penned by our members. As we went around the room for a head count of whose plays would be read, I said, “I’ll do mine.” Of course, I hadn’t written page one of “mine.”

I gave the group a title, Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Road (the last word of which was later shortened to ‘Rd.‘ through a poster printing error, but hey, the printing was free, so I kept it). Fried Meat Ridge Road is a real road outside of my hometown of Keyser, West Virginia. The name had always fascinated me. It seemed the ideal setting for the farce I wanted to write. (Hooker Hollow Road, also outside Keyser, had fascinated me as well, but that would have been a much different play.)

Keith Stevenson and Neil McGowan

I had a deadline of December 18. I stared at the moon every night until December 1. When I had concluded the moon was not going to write the play for me, I took my netbook to the Cinema Bar on Sepulveda, where there is a back patio. I like to write outdoors.

All I had were two characters from a screenplay I had abandoned a long time ago: JD, a somewhat bizarre, but affable hillbilly of otherworldly origin and Mitchell, a straight man who answers a “roommate wanted” ad that JD had listed. The original screenplay started with 35 pages of backstory for Mitchell, but once he entered the room with JD, writer’s block set in for the next several years. So as a challenge, I started my stage play there, with the moment that Mitchell walks in the door. With the help of my writing partner, Jack Daniels, I wrote the first five pages that day. I returned the next day to the patio and wrote another eight pages. Decent progress, but one problem — I was now $90 in to the Cinema Bar. The Rockefellers may have family in West Virginia, but I ain’t one of them.

Keith Stevenson

The next few nights I wrote in my driveway with my netbook set on the tailgate of my pick-up truck. Then my friend and fellow PRTer, Norman Scott (who would later become the production’s scenic designer), offered me an empty apartment in the building he manages in Inglewood as a writing studio. I burned through the last 30 pages of the script there, desperately coming up with jokes from the stuff I saw lying around (a ladder, a fake-rock key safe — believe it or not, they worked.)

I finished the play with 24 hours to spare before the reading. Deadline met. The reading was such a success, we decided to do a three-week workshop production in March of this year. PRT’s artistic director Marilyn Fox gave us the green light to keep going. That turned into a six-month run — six of the best months of my life, spent with cast members Neil McGowan, Kendrah McKay, Michael Prichard, Jason Huber, Alex Fernandez and Scott Jackson — led by our director, Guillermo Cienfuegos. Near the end of the run, we were honored with an Ovation Award nomination for playwriting for an original play.

The success and themes of that play have led to a sequel, A Fried Meat Christmas, which is now currently playing alongside the original at Pacific Resident Theatre. Christmastime is fitting for a continuation of the original story, given JD’s somewhat holy(?) origin.

A Fried Meat Christmas, Pacific Resident Theatre, 707 Venice Boulevard, Venice 90291. Tonight and Friday, 8 pm. It’s paired with Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Rd. as a back-to-back double bill on Saturday 8 pm and Sunday 3 pm. Tickets: $20 per show; $30 if purchase tickets for both at same time. www.pacificresidenttheatre.com. 310-822-8392.

***All A Fried Meat Christmas production photos by Guillermo Cienfugos

Keith Stevenson penned the plays, Out There On Fried Meat Ridge Rd. and A Fried Meat Christmas as well as the films In the A.M. Of Dec 26th (On The Corner Of Cunningham & Kongosak in Barrow), The Magic Castle Presents The Amazing Joshua (Presto) Shapiro, and All That Glitters.

Stevenson brought back all of the same characters who became so popular with audiences who developed a near cult-like reputation for JD ((Keith Stevenson), his closest buddy Mitchell (Neil McGowan), and the rest of the gang, Tommy (Alex Fernandez), Marlene (Kendrah McKay), and Flip (Shawn Boyd). Added to this production was Chad (Oona Wood) and two “Adorable Carolers” (Esabelle Logo and Mattius Vojar).

If you saw this lively comedy, I am sure you will agree with me that it was great entertainment. And if you did not see it, let us all look forward to the return of JD and the gang in a future production that we hope will take place on “Fried Meat Ridge Rd.” in the near future at the Pacific Resident Theatre, located at 703 Venice Blvd. in Venice. The show has been extended for two more double-header performances on January 5 & 6, 2013.

Ingmar Bergman (1918- 2007) was a Swedish writer, producer, and director for stage, film and television. Thinking that Ibsen did not go far enough with the ending of this controversial play, Bergman adapted Ibsen’s A Doll House in Swedish and re-titled it Nora. The English translation, by Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker, is running now at The Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice. It is an intriguing production directed by company member Dana Jackson.

The play tells of the marriage of Torvald Helmer (Brad Greenquist) and Nora Helmer (Jeanette Driver). Torvald has a commanding personality and treats his beautiful wife as if she were a child, and at the same time, suppressing her and doting on her. She, however, believes that she has the perfect marriage, especially now that Torvald has been promoted at the bank and they won’t have any more financial problems. But Nora has a great many problems unknown to her husband, and when he is finally made aware of them, their marriage is totally transformed. It is than that Nora realizes that their marriage was not what she thought it was and that Torvald is not the man she thought he was. The play ends with a stunning climax, that in its day, was exceptionally contentious.

The adaptation by Bergman, though like the original by Ibsen, is spellbinding to the very end. Driver is absolutely the perfect model for Nora in her performance. Greenquist plays a domineering man, while at the same time, he can be playful and sexy with his wife as he fulfills his role. Other pertinent characters to the play, and extremely well presented, are Martha Hackett (Mrs. Linde), Scott Conte), and Bruce French (Doctor Rank).

Nora plays Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM through January 27, 2013, at Pacific Resident Theatre, located at 705 1/2 Venice Blvd. in Venice, CA. Tickets are available online at www.PacificResidentTheatre.com, or by calling (310) 822-8392.

Creator of such epic projects as “Fanny and Alexander” and “Scenes From a Marriage” — both later edited into feature-length format — Ingmar Bergman hardly seems the go-to guy when it comes to condensing an existing script.

Yet “Nora,” Bergman’s briskly abbreviated version of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” translated to the English by Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker, distills Ibsen’s overflowing themes into a bitter but bracing demitasse.

First produced in the early ‘80s, the play receives a near-optimum staging from director Dana Jackson at Pacific Resident Theatre. In uniformly cogent performances, a superlative cast cuts to the emotional heart of Ibsen’s masterwork.

Casting petite and gamine Jeanette Driver as Nora and towering, obviously older Brad Greenquist as her husband, Torvald, emphasizes Torvald’s complete domination of his child-like wife. The actors’ inspired physicality — with Torvald looming and Nora seductively cringing — points up the underlying creepiness of their near-pederastic marriage.

Conversely, the moving romance between Nils Krogstad (Scott Conte), Nora’s blackmailer, and Nora’s old friend, Christine Linde (Martha Hackett) is devoid of artifice — a coming together of battered souls who can no longer afford illusion. As Nora’s admirer, terminally ill Doctor Rank, Bruce French balances wistful yearning with heroism.

But a few gratuitous segues do creep in. Jackson unwisely overblows Bergman’s coy indication that Nora and Torvald have sex just before Nora’s defection.

As Driver plays her, Nora is so stunned by Torvald’s self-serving display that she allows herself to be manipulated into bed, like a blow-up doll. Granted, that’s a bold interpretation — but it largely vitiates Nora’s final epiphany and undermines her moral stature at a critical juncture.

“Nora,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 1/2 Venice Blvd., Venice. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Jan. 27. $20-$28. (310) 822-8392. www.pacificresidenttheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Creator of such epic projects as “Fanny and Alexander” and “Scenes From a Marriage” — both later edited into feature-length format — Ingmar Bergman hardly seems the go-to guy when it comes to condensing an existing script.

Yet “Nora,” Bergman’s briskly abbreviated version of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” translated to the English by Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker, distills Ibsen’s overflowing themes into a bitter but bracing demitasse.

First produced in the early ‘80s, the play receives a near-optimum staging from director Dana Jackson at Pacific Resident Theatre. In uniformly cogent performances, a superlative cast cuts to the emotional heart of Ibsen’s masterwork.

Casting petite and gamine Jeanette Driver as Nora and towering, obviously older Brad Greenquist as her husband, Torvald, emphasizes Torvald’s complete domination of his child-like wife. The actors’ inspired physicality — with Torvald looming and Nora seductively cringing — points up the underlying creepiness of their near-pederastic marriage.

Conversely, the moving romance between Nils Krogstad (Scott Conte), Nora’s blackmailer, and Nora’s old friend, Christine Linde (Martha Hackett) is devoid of artifice — a coming together of battered souls who can no longer afford illusion. As Nora’s admirer, terminally ill Doctor Rank, Bruce French balances wistful yearning with heroism.

But a few gratuitous segues do creep in. Jackson unwisely overblows Bergman’s coy indication that Nora and Torvald have sex just before Nora’s defection.

As Driver plays her, Nora is so stunned by Torvald’s self-serving display that she allows herself to be manipulated into bed, like a blow-up doll. Granted, that’s a bold interpretation — but it largely vitiates Nora’s final epiphany and undermines her moral stature at a critical juncture.

“Nora,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 1/2 Venice Blvd., Venice. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Jan. 27. $20-$28. (310) 822-8392. www.pacificresidenttheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.