Henrik Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE- Page 2

[Jon]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 11:00am

There was a recent Off-Broadway production by the experimental group Mabou Mines that had all the women played by actresses over six feet tall, and all the men played by actors under five feet. That same production is coming ot the Court Theatre in Chicago this spring.

[professor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 3:33pm

A couple of interesting notes on the play:
--Although it's often seen as "feminist," that was not Ibsen's intent. Ibsen wrote the play as a tract on Individuality, not Women's rights, even going so far as to say, in an address to the Norwegian Women's Rights League, "I must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for the women's rights movement. I am not even quite clear on what this women's rights movement really is. To me, it has seemed a problem of humanity in general."
--The play's Norwegian title, ET DUKKEHJEM, is better translated as "A Dollhouse," than "A Doll's House."

Personally, I admire the play for what its content (and structure) reperesented in 1879, but I think it falls apart in the final moments before the door-slam. I think Nora's transformation from sheltered plaything to articulate social advocate is just too abrupt. I've seen many productions of the play and I've never seen an actress who has made the transition believable. I didn't see McTeer, however...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:20pm

McTeer made very moment in that real and believeable. Her Nora's evolution and unraveling was very gradual and ultimately devastating.

The Mabou Mines production was clever and interesting for the most part and the final twist in the last 15 minutes will blow you away -- but with a running time of three hours (longer than some traditional productions of it), it often drags and meanders and loses effectiveness. Generally speaking these sorts of deconstructions need to be cut to be clean and efficient so that the directorial conceits can have maximum impact. Stretched over that much time, ideas that original seemed fresh, began to just feel gimmicky and monotonous. There were two intermissions and a sizeable chunk of the audience left at each one, such that there were only about 40 of us left for the final act (down from 100 or so). I couldn't blame them. Most of that audience at St. Anns Warehouse are sophisticated veteran thearegoers who already knew the play quite well and after an hour of tall ladies ducking through small door frames and crawling around on the stage, the production's points about male patriarchy in society had been made abundantly clear and been run into the ground. It would have been far more effective as a 90 minute intermissionless piece.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:57pm

"The play's Norwegian title, ET DUKKEHJEM, is better translated as 'A Dollhouse,' than "A Doll's House."

It is nonetheless translated both ways. It is interesting how such a slight change in title can change the meaning. If it is "A Doll's House" then it is Nora's house, if it is "A Dollhouse" it is a house in which Torvald plays with his "toys" that are just something fun to have around and nothing more. You can also see this in the way Nora treats her children.

I also love that each of Ibsen's plays is a commentary on the criticisms of his immediately previous work.

Updated On: 2/25/06 at 04:57 PM