I still have never seen A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. I am vaguely aware of the general story and its famously shocking ending when first produced in 1879. Therefore, in a crowded spring season for Broadway, Part 2 was not near the top of my must-see list. Then I noticed the playwright was Lucas Hnath. In 2015, “The Christians” (Playwrights Horizon) was one of my favorite plays that year. Later that same season, I saw “Red Speedo” at New York Theater Workshop in a visually arresting production. I loved them both for their thought-provoking characters and storylines so I took the plunge.
Along with her co-stars, Jayne Houdyshell, Chris Cooper and Condola Rashad, Laurie Metcalf leads us through this quasi-sequel as Nora. While the play is definitely a Part 2 to A Doll’s House, it arrives over a century later. The dialogue is often hilarious as the play ingeniously weaves us through a series of moral complexities. Every character is rich, three dimensional and fully embodied in these wonderful performances.
Even more importantly, the play’s plot flows effortlessly and believably. The director, Sam Gold, has effectively realized the combination of classic with contemporary. All of the actors spar against each other and themselves on a minimalistic perfect set. The audience is rewarded by revisiting a classic and its characters but with the freshness and spin enabled by crisp, modern dialogue plus the analytical passage of time. Is marriage a good or bad thing?A Doll’s House, Part 2 firmly puts the spotlight on that debate. And this playwright lets us decide, if that’s even possible.
Leaving the theater, I overheard two older men griping about this production. They complained that the direction was all wrong and took the easy road by playing for laughs rather than being serious. Ibsen this is not. It’s Hnath and it’s genius. Wherever he goes next, I’m all in.
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