I don’t have much prior experience with the original A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. I do have prior experience with a very modern adaptation of another one of Henrik Ibsen’s Plays, Hedda Gabler. Similar to this adaptation, the play we watched on Friday was a shocking jump from what one would expect just from reading the original play.
I believe the director of this play portrayed Nora quite well as a caged bird. One of the most interesting ways the director displayed this I actually noticed after the first act. If I am remembering correctly, Nora does not leave the stage once in the entire first act of the play. She is confined within the walls of the set which symbolizes the cage. Even when her character has costume changes or the set is moving and changing all around her, she is not allowed to exit the stage like the other characters are. Another aspect I noticed after the first act was the usage of music and lights within the play that symbolized the caged bird story. The scene where Nora is almost frozen staring at the baby monitor while the red lights are flashing all around her and the intense, anxiety-inducing, music is blaring creates a distinct feeling of Nora being trapped within the confinements of her own responsibilities. As the other characters are moving freely about around her, Nora is stuck in one place as the scene grows more and more intense which signifies her role in this dilemma as the problem maker is experiencing the problem worsen but she cannot escape her own actions.
One of the more director focused decisions that I feel truly conveyed Nora’s character as a caged bird is how they decided to end the play. From what I have been hearing in conversations around the group, most people seem to dislike this change from the original. I actually have to say I loved this decision. To have the play end on a note which leaves the audience wondering if she actually leaves or not is the exact feeling that needs to be portrayed when creating a caged-bird story. In the original, the caged-bird gets free, as in, Nora leaves her husband definitively, because this was something new and controversial at the time. The decision for a wife to leave her husband and children was simply not even a discussion. Therefore, if a wife did leave, they would be outcasted by society, but if they decided to stay, they would be praised. Now, in modern times, women have a choice. But, this choice comes with different consequences. If the Nora in the play we watched decided to leave, she would face hate and guilt for destroying her family and abandoning her husband and children. If Nora decided to stay, she would be criticized for not choosing herself in an age when feminism is seemingly growing stronger and stronger everyday. She would be faulted for her decision to keep a family together that would eventually be harmful to everyone in the future, especially the children. These consequences the Nora we watched would face are exactly what makes her a caged bird. In this adaptation of the play, there is no way for Nora to “win.” Either way, she is in the wrong in some way, even if she never makes a decision at all she is criticized. This directorial decision portrays the caged-bird aspect of every role women must play in modernized society by highlighting the different consequences that women face today rather than the original.
Theatre in London U of A 