A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART TWO

Lainie Hart as Nora, Rhys Robinson as Torvald
in Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2

 

Dolls House 2 by Lucas Hnath. 

Directed by Joel Horwood. Set design Tom Berger. Lighting design Lachlan Houen. Sound design Neville Pye. Costume design Helen Drum. Properties Coordinator Rosemary Gibbons. Stage manager Carmen King. Production Manager Liz de Toth. Set Coordinator. Russell Brown OAM Canberra Repertory Theatre. June 13-28 2025. Bookings 62571950.

 

Elaine Noos as Anne-Marie. Lainie Hart as Nora

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

It is said that when Nora Helmer slammed the door on her exit in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House and decided to leave her husband Torvald and her children in search of her independence and true identity it was the loudest door slam in the history of the theatre. In our modern day and age such an act begs the question “What happened to Nora?” Playwright Lucas Hnath has written an intriguing and illuminating account of Nora’s imagined return after an absence of fifteen years. Now a highly successful writer, writing under a pseudonym, she has been exposed as Nora Helmer by a judge who threatens to reveal that she has been acting against the law because she is not legally divorced. It may seem a rather tenuous argument in the light of contemporary expectations, but it serves to reinforce the oppressed status of a married woman at the turn of the twentieth century. Nora (Lainie Hart), having assumed that Torvald (Rhys Robinson) had filed a divorce when she left is therefore forced to return to request a divorce from Torvald to escape the consequences of her legally illicit behaviour in the intervening years.

Elaine Noon (Anne-Marie), Anna Lorenz (Emmy), Rhys Robinson (Torvald)

To a modern audience, Hnath’s premise may require a willing suspension of disbelief, although it quickly becomes evident that Ibsen’s critical account of the woman’s subservience and powerlessness in his A Doll’s House is still the case at the time of Nora’s return in A Doll’s House, Part 2. Nora, although now an independent and highly successful woman writer is still bound by a patriarchy that denies her free will. Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2 ‘s polemic contends that the circumstances of Henrik Ibsen’s original play persist. In confronting the struggle, Hnath’s Nora provides a prophesy of change and a strong feminist voice for the future. There is no need for the door to slam at the end of the ninety-minute play. For today’s enlightened audience Nora’s dream for change has become a reality. The difference that remains between her and Torvald is that she can imagine that change. Torvald can’t. and there’s the rub.

Lainie Hart as Nora. Anna Lorenz as Emmy

Hnath has constructed his play as an argument. Scene one is Nora’s scene and we hear her argument. Scene Two introduces the perspective of the housemaid Anne-Marie (Elaine Noon). Scene Three introduces Torvald’s confusion and perplexity. We meet Nora’s daughter Emmy (Anna Lorenz) in Scene 4 and finally Nora and Torvald come to an understanding and conclusion to the debate. If it were not for the fact that director Joel Horwood has chosen an excellent cast, the play could become tediously didactic, but Horwood’s cast imbue their argument and opinion with articulately fleshed out character. Tom Berger’s carefully and cleverly designed set avoids any superfluity, while retaining a sense of period and middle class affluence which allows an audience to focus entirely on the contrasting arguments. The design is ideally complemented by Helen Drum’s costumes, Lachlan Houen's atmospheric lighting and Neville Pye’s blend of classical and contemporary sound design.

Horwood’s direction is purposeful, focusing clearly on his actors to play out their attitude. Hart’s Nora is effervescent. There is still the girlish playfulness of Ibsen’s songbird, but it is now imbued with the confidence of the successful and independent woman. Hart is an actress who never fails to captivate. Robinson’s Torvald captures the conservative conditioning of his gender, social standing and bewildered resistance to change perfectly. Elaine Noon’s housemaid Anne Marie is the paragon of loyal servitude. Noon’s traditional foil perfectly captures Anne Marie’s acceptance of her lot with a strength of conviction and duty. As Nora’s daughter Emmy, Anna Lorenz is her father’s daughter, engaged to a bank clerk and content to enter marriage. Lorenz combines Nora’s intelligent and independent strength of character with her father’s observance of social expectation. At times her speed of delivery lost the sense of dialogue but the characterization was entirely convincing.

All in all, Rep’s production of A Dolls House, Part 2 is a meticulously and insightfully staged performance of Hnath’s absorbing conjecture. Knowledge of Ibsen’s original drama may heighten appreciation of the relationship between the circumstances that drove Nora to leave Torvald and her journey of independence in the intervening fifteen years. However, it will not detract in any way from the enjoyment and engagement with this thought-provoking and stimulating night at the theatre.

Photos by Ross Gould