In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, I don’t believe they represented the script accurately. You could say that she was kept like a “cage bird” in the basement, but to be fair, in the adaptation that we saw, she willingly stayed down there. I’m sure it could’ve been claustrophobic, but he didn’t lock her down there by any means. In the script it’s suggested for us to dislike Torvald and feel pity for Nora. But to be honest, I didn’t feel any of that watching it. In this adaptation it seems almost as if she took the money to become rich instead of genuinely wanting to help him. The reaction that Torvald had to finding out the secret was a little too aggressive, but it wasn’t completely irrational for what she did. The ending was disappointing to me because I feel like it took away from the rest of the play. In the script, she decides to leave her family and go find a life for herself, which, to me, is way more effective. Overall it was super interesting watching this version because I was fully expecting it to be in the time period of the original script. I think the modern adaptation was good, and I actually very much enjoyed it; it just didn’t even feel like the same play to me. If I’m just judging it off of what I saw and acting like I have no prior knowledge of the play, I’d say I pretty much liked everything about it. The costumes worked well to me because they felt natural and accurate to the modern time period. The set was cool, but I didn’t realize it was the basement until they said it out loud, and that wasn’t at the beginning. The sound was good; however, I am curious as to why they used mics considering it was in such a small space. I thought this show was well done, and the actors did an amazing job, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was A Doll’s House.
Theatre in London U of A 