Western culture was struck by numerous changes in the late twentieth century. Many monarchs fell, socialism, Communism and democracy made inroads, the social sciences developed the concepts of psychology and sociology, the industrial revolution changed manufacturing, and the way the middle class would live was drastically altered.
In the theater, escapist and melodramatic plays were replaced by dramas that reflected the issues of the era. The modernists, such as Anton Chekov, illustrated the flailing role of the aristocracy and was a voice predicting the Russian Revolution. George Bernard Shaw challenged the influences of education and the role of religion. Henrik Ibsen championed the cause against women being considered second-class citizens.
One of Ibsen’s classic works is A Dolls House. “The play concerns the fate of a married woman, who lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world. Despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play, it was a great sensation at the time and caused a storm of outraged controversy.”
At the conclusion of the epic, Nora tells her husband Torvald that she is leaving him and, in a confrontational scene, expresses her sense of betrayal and disillusionment. She says that she has been treated like a doll to play with, first by her father and then by him. Leaving her keys and wedding ring, Nora walks out of their home, leaving behind her husband and children and a way of life she doesn’t want.
At the start of A Doll’s House, Part 2, which is now onstage at Beck Center, a knock is heard at the door — the same door that Nora slammed behind her fifteen years earlier when she exited at the end of Ibsen’s play, the door closing which has been termed by theatrical experts and feminists as “the door slam heard around the world.” Nora is now a woman who has become a free-thinking human being. It is this “new” Nora who is knocking.
After leaving her husband and children, she has become a successful feminist novelist. The reason for her return is to finalize the divorce which she thought had been executed many years before, but as she has recently found out, for which Torvald had never signed the papers. Thus, we are thrown into a series of scenes in which both Nora and the audience are forced to examine what it is that she/we want from life. Questions arise as to what does it mean to have developed one’s own voice and what is the price we each pay for the decisions we make.
The 2028 Broadway production of Part 2, which was to have a limited 16-week run, was extended well beyond its limited engagement as the production won numerous awards and audiences continued flowing into the theater.
As Beck’s director, Don Carrier, wrote in his program notes, “Lucas Hnath (the playwright) is one of our most creative contemporary writers and wisely chose to explore the character and subject matter though a comedic lens. But even that comedic lens can’t help but pick away at the scabs of the past and get to the roots of why Nora left. It’s a play with a lot of questions and hopefully answers that allow closure.”
Anjanette Hall is superb as the conflicted Nora. She creates a character that is so real it is hard to believe that she is only portraying a person, and is not the person herself.
Nanna Ingvaresson breaths Anne Marie, the housekeeper who was left with the task of caretaker and child-raiser when Nora left. Tabitha Raithel effectively develops the role of Emmy, Nora’s abandoned daughter.
David Vegh endows an honesty into Torvald which leaves the feeling that he is, under the surface, a person who understands the conflict between Nora and himself, but is powerless to do anything about it.
Jill Davis’s stark set, Adam Ditzel’s lighting and Angie Hays’ sound effects add to create an appropriate space for the production. Jenniver Sparano’s women’s costumes are both era-correct and beautifully designed and executed.
Capsule judgment: Beck’s production, under the focused direction of Don Carrier, is a model of the right play, the right cast and the right presentation. It is a perfect model of the “thinking person’s play.” Though filled with ironic humor, it is the drama of the script that makes it work so well.
A Doll’s House, Part 2 runs through June 30 in the Senney Theater of Beck Center for the Arts. For tickets go to beckcenter.org or call 216-521-2540.
[Written by Roy Berko, member: Cleveland Critics Circle and American Theatre Critics Association]