SINGAPORE — What would Singapore be like if it were a woman? A bit like a character straight out of a Henrik Ibsen play, it would seem.

That was the playful analogy that eventually resulted in Our Company’s (OC) newest production Dear Nora, a local take on Ibsen’s classic play A Doll’s House.

Adapted by playwright Michelle Tan, it tells of the lives of sheltered Nora Huang and her husband, a happily married, well-to-do couple, and how they are disrupted by various characters, including a man to whom Nora owes money. Eventually, their world begins to crumble.

Directed by OC artistic director Luke Kwek, it stars Andrew Mowatt, Ellison Tan Yuyang, Ethel Yap, KS Yeo and Marlon Dance-Hooi.

Kwek broached the idea to Tan by Kwek after he had watched an Ibsen production online and Tan took up the challenge of adapting the play.

“I would not call it easy,” admitted Tan, whose original play Stand Behind The Yellow Line was staged by Singapore Repertory Theatre last March.

“A big part of the challenge came from finding the balance between staying true to Ibsen’s work — because it’s not just any play but a seminal work and comes with a certain set of expectations — and making this play complete in itself so that, for anyone who has never read Ibsen’s or doesn’t know what A Doll’s House is about, he wouldn’t need any external reference to help him understand Dear Nora.”

Staging the play was yet another bold step taken by OC, which comprises Kwek, Sophie Khoo, Rosemary Chan and Junkai Chan, all theatre lovers with daytime jobs. It’s only their second official production after last year’s double-bill staging of Ovidia Yu’s Hokkien Me and Leow Puay Tin’s Three Children.

Before formally setting up OC, the group had also staged a few smaller works, including one on real-life ghost story accounts titled Pantang.

It has been a learning curve for the group, said Kwek, who’s also an in-house lawyer for a multinational company.

“The interesting thing for us is that we kind of straddle communities — there’s the whole amateur drama community, people who do this as a hobby during their free time, and we’re now working with some full-time theatre practitioners,” he said.

Right now, they’re trying to find a business model that will work for them. “There are very few companies doing what we do. A lot of full-time companies with full-time practitioners have found their footing and know where their income is coming from. For us, it’s somewhat in between. One of the challenges has been trying to raise funds and sources of funding that are unique to us, to find people willing to invest in amateur productions.”

And then, of course, there’s the whole idea about directing a pro. “For me it’s very scary. We’re talking Ibsen and some of these actors are professional practitioners. What gives me the right to direct these people?” he quipped.

The group is taking it one step at a time, so Dear Nora should be it for this year — unless it feels the urge to do more in 2014. But it is already thinking of next year’s production and is looking at doing an original, devised piece that’s like a counterpoint for ghost story-tinged Pantang.

“We’re actually thinking of doing something to balance that out, perhaps something on true love stories that we’ve collected from the community,” said Kwek. MAYO MARTIN

Dear Nora runs from June 18 to 22, 8pm, Drama Centre Black Box. With 3pm matinees. Tickets at S$30 from Ticketmash.