A Doll’s House
Donmar
The Observer
Cottesloe
Amazing guy, Ibsen. Still scribbling away at the age of 181, the Norwegian genius has teamed up with under-rated Spooks writer Zinnie Harris to create a new version of A Doll’s House. They’ve shifted the setting from 19th-century Norway to London in 1909 and promoted Thomas from the provincial bourgeoisie to parliament. Odd choice. Putting the play at the heart of the British Empire adds not one ounce of dramatic weight, and if Thomas is a leading democratic statesman his unworldly Puritanism seems bizarre and incredible.
The good news is that Harris has helped her co-author discover a knack for comedy he never showed as a solo writer. Numerous ribald Ibsenities have been restored to the script. ‘I’ve got your husband by the testicles,’ snarls Nora’s blackmailer. There are lots of decent jokes in this rewrite but comedy damages the tone and undermines the gradual accretion of suspense and horror that should propel the drama to its final cataclysm.
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