Theatre - A Doll's House

Who/what/where: A Doll's House, The Young Vic/Digital Theatre

The way Digital Theatre works is that they organise with certain theatres to film particular performances and put them online to rent/buy. While I am personally a big fan of seeing things live, this is really handy if you miss a show, or want to retain a copy. In this case I fall into the latter camp

I've seen this version three times now, once when it opened at The Young Vic, again at the West End transfer, and finally the digital version, which was filmed from the Young Vic run, although the transfer was a pretty solid "lift and shift" job, taking along the cast, set, etc.

Ibsen has a bit of a reputation for depressing plays, though in some ways this is at least an oversimplification, if not missing the point entirely. While I'm not saying that his subject matter is mirth and hilarity all the way, A Doll's House is actually an amusing play - there is a lot of comedy wrapped within it, which is a necessary contrast. If a play is simply dark throughout the audience becomes depressed and eventually builds a tolerance to the darkness, their night vision if you will. Throw in some moments of light and they don't adjust as easily, it makes the dark moments darker and the bright ones lighter. And that is part of what makes this play work.

It was written in the late 19th century, and, while some things have changed in that time, there is a suprising amount which has not, which (aside from the writing) will be one of the reasons this play still gets performed even now - in fact, only a few years ago it was awarded the distinction of being the world's most performed play.

Depending on the performance you can take quite different things out of the characters at different times - Torvald, for example, has provoked responses varying from "what a horrible, horrible man" to "he simply just does not know how to function in the world" and all sorts of stances in between. In many ways this is a good thing, showing how much of a difference the actor's performance on a given night and your own mindset going in can make to your experience.

The entire play takes place set within the small apartment of Torvald and Nora Helmer. Typically it takes place in one room, but in this version they'd hade an entire, cramped, apartment and st it up to revolve on stage. It both expands things out, allowing for a little more movement, and at the same time really shows just how claustrophobic an enviroment they live in - there's a scene with a conversation which now takes place in the corridor, again showing how little freedom and privacy Nora has within her own home. It's a fantastic bit of set design, and while I find internal windows a little odd, I am willing to run with it as either something I am simply unfamiliar with or just better from a setting perspective.

Nora, mother of three, wife of Torvald is our principle character, and, in many ways, that's the limit of her identity for much of the play, which is the entire point of the plot. She doesn't know who she really is, and is largely kept by her husband, who calls her various nicknames as if she were a pet, or, in fact, a doll. In the events leading up to the play she has, through fraudulent means (though she doesn't truly understand the consequences of her actions) obtained a loan in order to take the family away so that Torvald could rest and recover. She's been paying this back in secret, including using any money Torvald gives her for herself. Torvald has recovered and is doing well - he's going to be promoted at the bank in which he works and things are looking up for him.

Kristine Linde arrives seeking her old friend Nora, and Nora agrees to find her some work in the bank. Rather "forunately" Torvald has a role in mind, that belonging to an employee called Krogstad. Torvald dislikes Krogstad, in part because of his manner, but primarily because of a deed her performed in his past - he forged a signature, and has been paying for that mistake ever since, slowly trying to atone, build himself back up and restore his reputation for the sake of his children. The man is condemned by Torvald for a deed remarkably similar to one that Torvald's wife has committed.

Krogstad comes to blackmail Nora into getting him his old job back, and it is ony during this exchange that the enormity of what Nora has done, if not the realisation that it was a wrongdoing in the first place, begins to sink in for her.

Dr Rank is the other major character of the play, a family friend suffering from illness who is waiting on tests that will tell him just how long he has left to live. During the play he reveals his affections for Nora, and, perhaps because of his circumstances, he is one of the most honest and forthright characters in the play.

Some of the second act, after the Tarantella, is chopped off during this version, but it makes sense to do so, leaving on a dramatic high for the interval. This is also the one scene where they take advantage of the being a digital performance and make clever use of the camera.

In the second half of the play things escalate further, Nora's crime coming to light and Torvald taking it poorly. Once his rant is complete a letter from Krogstad arrives, releasing Nora of the debt, having reconnected with Kristine Linde, and hopefully living what passes for a happily ever after. Torvald's reaction to this is particularly telling, as it's all about "him" being saved, how "he" has escaped the grim fate, and how he forgives Nora for her misdeeds. It's after this exchange that Nora realises Torvald is not who she thought he was (and neither is she who he expected) and leaves Torvald, explaining that she needs to figure out who she is, while he is completely unable to grasp the events that are unfolding or to understand how selfish etc he appears to an observer.

As a product of the time it would not be common to look at the prevailing view of marriage in such a critical way, and this was the subject of controversy when it was first performed. While many things have progressed since then people are still people, there are still relationships like this out there, and many of the themes are as relevant now as they were then.