Horla, one of the fringe’s leading theatre companies, is to stage a revival of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play A Doll’s House, in a new translation prepared by Martin Adamson and adapted by Horla. It will be staged at Hampton Wick April 15-May 3.

The play, which was first performed in Copenhagen in 1879, opens on Christmas Eve. Nora wraps presents, decorates the tree and plays with her beloved children. Excitement and love fills the Helmers' apartment. Nora is her husband's cherished “songbird,” and the romance of their marriage has been played out over the years. But beneath the carefree surface of their lives, the secret of how Nora saved her husband's life begins to emerge. Is this idyll a paradise or a prison? Nora must charm, delight and seduce if she is to survive.

Tension increases as the characters react against one another and this drama ends as Nora demands her right to individual freedom. The play has been voted one of the top 50 classics of world literature. It was also the play in which Janet McTeer (the lead in the National Theatre’s current production of Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi) made her name.

  Fiona Aldridge plays Nora; her previous productions include Daughter in Jacques & his Master (Young Vic Studio), Her in The Last Word (Just Desserts New Writing Festival) and Ophelia in Horla's Hamlet (Rose & Crown).   Director Alistair Green’s previous adaptations and directing credits include Grimms (a feast of fairy tales); The Stratagem & Other Stories (Crowley, Poe); Sleepless Nights which included, to his knowledge, the first stage version of Guy de Maupassant's cult classic The Horla; Hamlet; and Grimms II, which played at the end of last year, making the Sunday Times pick of “alternative” festive shows.

  A Doll's House is designed by Tracy Waller, lit by Ben Pickersgill, and runs at the Rose and Crown Theatre, 59/61 High Street, Hampton Wick, Surrey, April 15-May 3 (Tues.-Sat. at 8 PM).