Review: A Doll's House, Theatre Delicatessen

An edited version of this review appeared in Time Out

Feminism has come a long way since Nora first slammed the door on the toy world of her marriage in 1879. Sophie Reynolds's new adaptation interrogates the contemporary credentials of Ibsen's classic, often dubbed the first truly feminist play, and comes up with a fascinating, if dramatically hazy, two hours.

Sexual equality, Reynolds suggests, is not a woman's right to do as men do, but freedom from imposed definitions. It is the right to do as women do. Nora's triumph, then, is not simply matching her husband, but supporting him. She leaves only because Torvald refuses to reciprocate that categorical support.

But Frances Loy's all-female production takes care to judge both genders equally. Margaret-Ann Bain's pestering Torvald misguidedly assumes women want a breadwinner in the office and a mischief in the bedroom. In fact, Loy throws every social opposition - class, wealth, race - into sharp relief on the traverse stage with admirable clarity.

In a production marked by its intelligence, even supporting characters are re-evaluated, with Rhoda Ofori-Attah finding in Krogstad a good man with no option bar blackmail.

What drops out, however, is emotional engagement. Reynolds's excision of Torval's thrifitness strips Nora of her heroic stoicism. By secretly borrowing money to fun her husband's medical treatment, Nora must be risking everything. We need to see her scrimpling to pay back the debt. In weakening that threat of discovery, Reynolds dampens the drama and forces Polly Eachus to wring blood from a Sloane. Nonetheless, the flashes of revelation are recompense enough.