Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's class1879 play
A Doll's House was ahead of its time in its exploration of gender roles and societal expectations, with its famous (or infamous) ending in which a wife walks away from her husband and children in order to save her own humanity. In 1879, can you imagine?! 146 years later we're still dealing with those very same issues; even though things have changed and women can now get a loan without a man co-signing (at least in this country we can, for now), women's place in society and in the family is still very much debated and talked about. The Guthrie is producing the regional premiere of Amy Herzog's new and very modern adaptation, which premiered on Broadway in 2023. It's riveting and stunning and so relevant, with fantastic performances from the six-person cast and gorgeous design.
See it on the Guthrie's thrust stage now through October 12.
The entire play takes place over just a couple of days in Torvald and Nora Helmer's home around Christmas of 1879. Nora thinks she's living the perfect life with husband, home, and children, until it all comes crashing down around her when it's revealed that eight years ago she illegally borrowed money to save her husband's life. Torvald treats her like a doll, calling her his songbird and making little condescending comments masked in sweetness, but the moment he finds out that she has been living a life that didn't conform to his ideas of her, he rejects her. Nora takes desperate measures in order to save herself, to live her life as a human being first, rather than just somebody's wife and mother.*
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Nora and Torvald (Amelia Pedlow and
David Andrew Macdonald, photo by Dan Norman) |
The Guthrie's Senior Artistic Producer Tracy Brigden directs the piece in a way that feels fresh and modern, yet emotionally impactful. The lighting and sound design go a long way in accomplishing this; scenes are punctuated by ominous sound cues and a dimming of lights, with an eerie glow around our characters as they pause for a moment. Photos of the Broadway production look like they used modern dress and set design, but this production remains in the late 19th century in terms of the resplendent costumes and stately gray walls of the Helmer home populated by a few elegant set pieces, which almost makes the modernity of the subject matter and the language even more striking. Surrounding the home on the thrust stage are fluffy white clouds of snow, that feels so fresh and cool it may make one long for cooler weather. (Scenic design by Luciana Stecconi, costume design by Trevor Bowen, lighting design by Robert Wierzel, and sound design/composition by Jane Shaw.)
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Nils Krogstad the loan shark (Ricardo Chavira)
(photo by Dan Norman)) |
This fantastic cast is led by Amelia Pedlow as Nora, rarely leaving the stage, so believable in her transformation from the happy little wife, to the mischievous woman secretly proud of the work she's done in keeping her secret and continuing to pay off the loan, to the human being waking up to the lie she's been living. David Andrew Macdonald is charming as Torvald, until he's not. Ricardo Chavira (
Desperate Housewives' Carlos for my fellow TV junkies) is surprisingly empathetic as Nora's loan shark, who has troubles and desperations of his own. Catherine Eaton is strong as Nora's friend Kristine who gets tangled up in her mess. Rounding out the cast are Andrew May as the couple's sweetly grumpy older friend in ill health, and George Keller in the small but important role of nanny to the children (who are heard but not seen).
There's a reason we keep coming back to this play; until women have equal rights and equal pay and full control to make their own decisions about their bodies, families, and lives, we still need Nora's brave story. One of the most striking lines in the play is when Torvald defends his actions by saying, "no man would sacrifice his dignity for his wife," and Nora angrily replies, "hundreds of thousands of women do that every day." This nearly 150-year-old play, especially this new adaptation by a young female American playwright, speaks directly to our modern world.
