Elysium Theatre and Queen's Hall Hexham presents
Henrik Ibsen's
A Doll's House
directed by Jake Murray
with Hannah Ellis Ryan as Nora
and Danny Solomon as Torvald
This was Elysium Theatre's first play with a big cast, and my first sound job in the main space of a big theatre. This play needs no introduction, but for those less familiar with the history, A Doll's House was a hugely controversial play for its day. A play about a happy marriage that actually isn't that happy is just about the most inoffensive subject material by modern standards, but 19th century Norway (or 19th century pretty much anywhere) was a different matter entirely. Nora and Torvald have a seemingly perfect marriage, but when a scandal from Nora's past comes to life - if saving your husband from himself can be considered a scandal - the real state of the relationship is laid bare. And when you're seeing the play repeatedly, it gets increasingly painful to watching Torvald dig himself into a deeper and deeper hole over and over again.
This is probably the toughest sound design job I've had to date, not because the sound effects themselves were particularly complex, but the sheer amount of rework needed in the final 48 hours as sound plot and cast were brought together. Challenges included the noise of an upstairs party with music ending and cheering at a very particular point in the script, and passing off live piano playing from three different actors, none of who are real piano players. But I managed to pull it off with some complicated and cunning editing. Before then, I'd felt a bit embarrassed I was getting paid a lot of money for a job I found quite easy. Not any more. They're sure getting their money's worth out of me.
Again, I don't take credit for the music - that was Paul Clark's doing.
Performances
Queen's Hall, Hexham: 28th & 29th September 2022 (operated by me)
then 9 other venues until 15th October (operated by Kamilla Jonsson)