For those who may have been turned off or intimidated by playwright Henrik Ibsen in high school, University Theatre is presenting students with an entirely new outlook on the famed playwright. While many students are probably familiar with Ibsen’s more commonly read works such as “A Doll’s House,” “Lady from the Sea” is one of those powerful plays that tends to go unrecognized.

“It’s strange,” Director Jeremy Thomas Poulsen, who has been directing for 10 years, said. “This play is unlike a lot of his other works. Ibsen is always working in realism, but this play is kind of mythical. Not supernatural necessarily, but powerful forces in the world that we have no control over.”

“Lady from the Sea” tells the story of Ellida, a woman caught up in a decision between romance and practicality.

“The story is about a woman who is faced with a problem. Her past is haunting her, and she has to decide whether she wants to move on with her life or run away with her past love,” Poulsen explained. “It’s a struggle because she’s married to a man who takes care of her, but she’s still obsessed and in love with her ex-lover. … She has to choose which man she wants to spend the rest of her life with.”

Although the storyline may come off as any typical romance novel, it differs in its capability of communicating with audience members on a very personal level. Although Ibsen may seem slightly outdated, “Lady from the Sea” is actually very relevant to its student audience.

“About half the characters are essentially college age, and they are all going through things college age people are going through,” actress Annelise Dickinson (“Blood Wedding”), who plays Ellida, said.

“I think people can relate to [Ellida]. Her big thing is realizing that she needs to be free to make her own choices in her life; that no matter what choice she makes the important thing is that she is an agent,” she said.

Although most of us probably haven’t been asked to make such a drastic decision in such a dramatic manner as Ellida, we are all still constantly making these massive, life-altering choices every day.

“There’s that fear of making a bad decision and being stuck with it for the rest of your life,” Dickinson said.

Poulsen encourages young people to see this production, agreeing in its relevance to early adulthood.

“It’s pretty specific to a university audience. We are at that stage of making choices in our lives … especially in this economy where our choices are much more narrowed,” he said.

Aside from the given commonalities between the play and the typical coming of age, this particular version of “Lady from the Sea” is geared even more specifically toward a younger audience.

“[Audience members] can look forward to the script that we are using. It’s a much more modern version of Ibsen,” Poulsen said. “The relationships are tighter; it’s not as wordy. They can take a fresher look at Ibsen.”

According to Poulsen, this fresh outlook on Ibsen is due to a very talented cast, crew and everybody who has had a share in putting the show together.

“‘Lady from the Sea’ has been fantastic because I got to work with designers who are highly educated in the program and brought their own sense of art history to the show. … I also got to work with undergrads who work really hard,” he said. “It’s been a great opportunity to work with this level of people on the production.”

With such a strong backbone and unique perspective, it is clear this production will give people a whole new outlook on Ibsen, and hopefully, on themselves as well.

“It’s a great show about autonomy, about finding the will within us to move forward with our lives,” Poulson said. “I want people to ultimately walk away with the questions in their mind about the choices made in the show, and how they make choices in their own lives.”

“Lady from the Sea” opens at University Theatre Friday. Tickets are $20.