Playwright Spence Porter has reworked Ibsen’s 1888 THE LADY FROM THE SEA into the similarly titled THE WOMAN FROM THE SEA. Here, the action unfolds in the 1950’s. The time period does not seem to have been selected for any particular reason, save that it may represent an era in which women were slightly freer to make decisions that would steer their futures.

Ibsen is notable for his strong, complicated female characters. In my experience, the power of these dramatic creations had very little to do with the times and everything to do with the inherent mystique created by Ibsen’s writing. So, Spence Porter’s choice to move the setting of THE WOMAN FROM THE SEA does nothing, from my perspective, to ensure a modernization of the text. It does, however, allow him to perhaps update the language. In the United States, of course, Ibsen’s plays are presented in translation, and a skilled interpreter can modernize the connotations.

As to the story itself, we meet a seaside nuclear family, the Wangels. There are two vivacious daughters, Bolette and Hilda (Tatjiana Vujosevic, Debbie Jaffe), who lounge by the sea and prepare for the birthday of their dear, departed birth mother. Their father, Dr. Wangel (David Winton) has remarried to a forlorn, if lovely, younger woman, Ellida (Margaret Dawson), who is the one that is referred to as "that woman from the sea." Thrown into the dramatic blender, we also find Bolette’s former tutor, Daniel (Fred Rueck), a young suitor, Hans (Pete Byrne), an eccentric artist, Teddy Ballister (Sterling Coyne) and the mysterious Seaman (A.J. Handegard).

As expected, the distracted Ellida Wangel has secrets, a hidden past, and a heart of unrest. Her maturing step-daughters are drawing the attentions of men, with the eldest, Bolette, considering a proposal that will take her away from the family and off to a life of her own. Ellida’s past collides with her present. Ghosts emerge. Painful choices are made. For all the twists and turns, however, the action never treads into mysticism, and THE WOMAN FROM THE SEA remains firmly on solid ground.

Never breaking into fairy tale world it so tries to reach, Porter’s THE WOMAN FROM THE SEA is, nevertheless, a respectful adaptation of a classic.

- Kessa De Santis -