Directed by Tony-winner Sam Gold, a wildly inventive new American play that picks up after Henrik Ibsen's most cherished work concludes, A Doll's House, Part 2 will boast an all-star cast that features three-time Emmy Award-winner and three-time Tony Award-nominee Laurie Metcalf, Academy Award-winner Chris Cooper, Tony Award-winner Jayne Houdyshell and two-time Tony Award-nominee Condola Rashad.
In the final scene of Ibsen's 1879 ground-breaking masterwork, Nora Helmer makes the shocking decision to leave her husband and children, and begin a life on her own. This climactic event - when Nora slams the door on everything in her life - instantly propelled world drama into the modern age. In A Doll's House, Part 2, many years have passed since Nora's exit. Now, there's a knock on that same door. Nora has returned. But why? And what will it mean for those she left behind?
Hnath's play is less a conventional sequel than a thought experiment inspired by the original. Luckily, Hnath, whose formally inventive plays include Isaac's Eye and The Christians, is no mean thinker. His scenes, typically structured as two-character conversations between Nora and Torvald (Chris Cooper), Nora and her daughter (Condola Rashad), Nora and her former nanny (Jayne Houdyshell), read as answers to an interior FAQ: what would bring Nora back? How would those she's left behind receive her? Has she achieved emancipation? At what cost?
As each character gets their big scene, their name is projected in enormous letters. Each character adds to the conversation about serious subjects - marriage, men and women, freedom, rights, equality. The issues aren't new but presented in intriguing ways. Still, something nags: Since you can't backdate a divorce do Nora's current efforts even matter? That doesn't come up in this production, which plays Nora's situation very much as comedy. Metcalf, a seasoned stage vet who's known for the sitcom 'Roseanne,' can clown with the best of them. Just saying the word 'no,' Metcalf's face is an avalanche of motion.
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