This Friday night we went and saw a production of “A Doll’s House” at Almeda Theatre. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this production given I had never read the play, but let’s just say that I was not ready for what I was about to see. The production was completely modernized, new time period and text. This post will be focused not on the original script, but this production and script.
A Doll’s House tells the story of Nora as she struggles with a dire situation related to her and her husband’s financial situation. The play explores the trapped nature of Nora’s life as she navigates whether to tell her husband Torvald the full situation of her playing a part in their situation, or just figure out how to solve it on her own. With the play being set in the present day, Nora’s social standing in the world is different from what it would’ve been in the original play set in the 1800’s. While there was definitely an attempt to keep the birdcage-like nature of Nora’s situation intact, her character felt like it had more autonomy than the original.
The set was a carpeted basement that was left incredibly bare. It had no chairs, couches, or other pieces of furniture. This created an interesting dynamic for the actors on stage. When a character had a moment where they had the urge to sit or lay down they had to do it on the floor. This personally did create an unnatural feeling of almost being trapped because there was nowhere to sit. I really like this choice, but it did feel uncomfortable.
Another choice that they made was to keep it a single location. Everything was set in the basement, so the space was kept very confined. People would enter and exit, but all the action happened there. One interesting entrance that was made was having Nils enter through the audience. Everyone else entered through the door onstage, but Nils entered through the house. I believe that they made this choice because he was not directly going to be affected by the situation, but it did feel a bit unmotivated at times.
The moment that struck me most was the end of act one when Nora put on a nurse/maid costume and danced for Torvald and Peter. They played the TikTok song “Man in Finance” and had her dance sensually for the entire duration of the song. She danced with both men, and this was one of the most interesting dichotomies of her character. On one hand she was pressured into it to an extent, but on the other hand it showed the power that she has over the situation. This moment really showed the complexity of the character. In the original, Nora had much less power, but this Nora did have some autonomy over her life. Overall it was an incredibly interesting and evocative moment.
I enjoyed the play, but the ending did feel a little bit off. There was a moment where it suddenly drew attention to the current War in Iran, and that took me out of the moment. On top of this, the final scene felt like a very obvious thesis of the show that told you what you were supposed to take away from it. It had its highs and lows, but I think that it was a great bonding experience for the group given the conversations that came out of it.
Cheers,
Thatcher
Theatre in London U of A 