NYTimes.com: When Nora Helmer, the heroine of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” left her family, slamming the door as she departed, the sound shook the theater and the world. “People left the theater, night after night, pale with excitement, arguing, quarreling, challenging,” an early critic remarked of that 1879 play. Many theater companies considered the ending so shocking, they changed it.
3 comments:
I wish this article had been more explicit about what the director plans on doing to connect the feminist issues in the play to today's audiences. I agree that the themes in "A Doll's House" are still very relevant today, but that Nora leaving her husband and children doesn't quite have the same impact nowadays. Even if Cracknell directs the play with those thoughts in mind, how different can it really be? The article mentions Nora using her sexuality to influence the men around her and the hyper-sexualized tarantella scene, but both of those elements are already very much present in the text itself. I would definitely like to see this production to know how the director approached her goal of making "A Doll's House" more relevant to today's women.
A Doll's House is one of my favorite plays, especially when put in context with the time period when it was performed. However, today the act of Nora leaving her family doesn't hold the same weight as it did 125 years ago. I appreciate Carrie Cracknell's re-imagining of this show, and adding more modern feminist themes. With these new additions, it can speak to the audiences as loud as it did in the 1890's. However, this article's structure is really confusing because they discuss two shows with very little transition. I wish it was more clear.
I think that whether or not the feminist themes of "A Doll's House" will still be relevant to today's audience is odd to even be questioning. Yes, a woman walking out on her family will not have the same impact as it did 125 years ago, but that doesn't mean the play and its themes couldn't be just as significant now. To understand where we are today in feminism, its always relevant to look back at where things started. And thematic elements could be highlighted more than the actual actions in the plot. As the article mentions Nora's use of her looks and longing for men's approval connect to very prevalent modern feminist themes. These could be more important in the show than the act of walking out.
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