Encountering it today, Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House seems more like a time capsule glimpse at a far-off era — both theatrically and sociologically — than a story that speaks directly to a contemporary audience.

While its view of women and the marriage dynamic is likely to seem quaint, if not antiquated, Palm Beach Dramaworks demonstrates that the play is still plenty stageworthy.

True, housewife Nora Helmer’s dilemma and eventual door-slamming escape no longer causes the shock and outrage they did to 1879 Norwegian theatergoers. But the domestic drama, and melodrama, still lands with intensity, particularly in the new translation by Frank McGuiness (Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me).

The play takes place at Christmastime, and our first view of Nora is her fluttery return from gift shopping, an indulgence that her newly promoted bank manager husband, Torvald, insists they can ill-afford. He acts parentally toward her, scolding her about everything from her dealings with money to her weakness for macaroons. In response, she acts like a child, what a marriage counselor these days would deem enabling his male chauvinism.

As we soon learn, she finds herself in a serious bind. Having forged her father’s signature on a loan, she is now being blackmailed by a dour bank employee named Krogstad who is trying to save his job. The extortion plot preys on Nora for most of the evening, until she has a Gloria Steinem “Click!” moment and realizes that the more important issue is how her husband has treated her like a china doll throughout their eight years of marriage.

A Doll’s House has a cast of seven, but the play belongs to Nora, one of Ibsen’s great female roles. Margery Lowe comes on strong in the second act. Following the character’s unseen realization during intermission, she is at her best in her assertive run-up to the most famous exit of early modern drama. In the first act, however, her chirpy cadences, wind-up doll movements and perpetual giggles seem to justify the way Torvald relates to her.

As Torvald, Michael St. Pierre is aptly stiff and stolid. It surely is not his fault that the character’s unsubtle rebukes of Nora elicit laughter from the Dramaworks audience. Gregg Weiner (Krogstad) seems initially to be a two-dimensional villain, but he is nicely humanized in his second act scene with Nanique Gheridian as Nora’s childhood chum, Mrs. Linde.

The dependable Michael Amico delivers again with his design for the formal, austere living room of the Helmer home. More impressive are Brian O’Keefe’s costumes, particularly Nora’s going-shopping dress and her gypsy party frock.

William Hayes’ direction is respectful of the period, even if a more post-modern take might have addressed some of the play’s cobwebs.

A Doll’s House fits Dramaworks’ mission of investigating the classics, but sometimes changes in audience viewpoints need to be taken into consideration.

T H E A T E R R E V I E W

A Doll’s House

B

Where: Palm Beach Dramaworks, 322 Banyan Blvd., West Palm Beach

When: Through Nov. 29.

Tickets: $44, $42. Call: (561) 514-4042 .

The verdict: Ibsen’s pre-feminism classic is showing its age, but retains enough dramatic spark.