A Doll's House, Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.

THIS production of the classic 19th-century Norwegian play felt like watching a Reduced Ibsen Company - important characters and lines omitted, stage directions eschewed, and "off-stage" actors perched distractingly on-stage, sipping water and dabbing facial sweat.

Henrik Ibsen's 1879 exploration of female emancipation, pre-dating the imaginative HG Wells's Ann Veronica of 1909 and the trite and tiresome feminism of the late 20th century, needs delicate and sensitive direction, not to be rushed through in 90 minutes without an interval - exhausting for both actors and audience.

The gently erotic and moving scene between Nora and Dr Rank needs aching pauses and silences, not unseemly haste.

Anna-Maria the nurse has vital and revealing lines, and should not be eliminated from the play; and Ibsen's deliberately shocking finale does not need the symbolic door-slam mis-timed, and the backdrop collapsing as a self-conscious trendy metaphor.

Misplaced minimalism can trivialise classic drama.