A Doll’s House, Part 2: Nora’s Return to Broadway

Lucas Hnath’s sequel to Ibsen’s classic of world literature, A Doll’s House, titled A Doll’s House, Part 2, suggests that every work in the canon should have a follow-up. Unless they die at the end, like Anna Karenina, it would be great to catch up, after all the sturm und drang. At the Golden Theater, we have that opportunity with Nora Helmer, the husband she left, Torvald, her faithful femme d’affaires, Anne Marie, and one of the three children she left behind, Emmy. Fifteen years have passed, and Nora (Laurie Metcalf, outstanding) returns to the house. Delivering a diatribe against marriage to Anne Marie (the incomparable Jayne Houdyshell), she needs to ensure that she is indeed divorced, and is dismayed to find her daughter, Emmy (an excellent Condola Rashad), while a new and updated version of her self, is engaged to, what else, a banker just like her dad. Torvald (Chris Cooper, a man any sane woman would be loath to leave) arrives home unexpectedly, and my how he has evolved since the day Nora left!

On opening night, Hugh Jackman, Bob Balaban, Brenda Vaccaro, Matthew Perry, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson, and many others celebrated this tour de force. At the spacious and brick-lined Bowery Hotel Chris Cooper said the size of this production, a brisk 90 minutes, was just right for him. Jayne Houdyshell said the smart dialogue was perfect for crossover audiences. (Indeed, they use the “f” word.) Only Laurie Metcalf was M.I.A. by the time we left the party, which was a disappointment.  Broadway actress supreme, even for those who remember her mostly as Roseanne Barr’s television sister, her performance, under Sam Gold’s direction, has a disciplined stiffness befitting an angry woman who can walk out on her children and accept no part in their lives.

Nora’s attitudes about marriage come off as comic and antiquated in the context of this witty play. One detail of A Doll’s House, Part 2, defies credibility: Could Nora really be making a living—in fact lots of money-- as a writer? If so, that is enviable indeed.

Regina Weinreich

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