JUNGLE THEATRE, JANUARY 2020
Torvald: Before all else, you are a wife and a mother.
Nora. I don't believe that anymore. I believe that before all else I am a thinking human being, just like you. Or, that I must try to become one.
- Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
In the final scene of A Doll’s House, Nora wakes up to the fallacy not only of her marriage, but of the institution in general. Knowing she can no longer live a lie and play house with her husband and children, she needs to put herself first, and leaves her home to find out who she truly is.
In reading A Doll’s House multiple times over the years and seeing it staged in various versions, I always found myself incredibly frustrated with Nora, who, for the first two acts of the play, tries to weasel herself out of a pack of lies while continuing to play her role of wife with an obnoxious amount of ditzy flair. But as I worked on adapting and directing Ibsen’s play last year, I came to believe three things: 1) that what I considered obnoxious was simply Nora being good at her “job” as wife, 2) it is the patriarchal system that forces women to be manipulative, and 3) that Nora is the bravest heroine of dramatic literature. She leaves everything she knows behind the moment she realizes the lack of honesty in how she’s been living, without knowing where she will go or what she will do. In 1879, this was no small thing—as a woman her options were few, and her opportunities were slim. Would I have the courage to do the same, if I was in her position?
I’ll admit, I’ve always assumed that a hard road was ahead for Nora. Because of this, I was taken aback when I first encountered Lucas Hnath’s play. How could she have done so well? And then I realized that I didn’t give her enough credit. My own personal bias that made me frustrated with Nora, also made me discredit her, even though in the first play she proves herself to be clever with people, good with money, and shrewd in business.
But here, in A Doll’s House Part 2, circumstances have brought her back knocking on the door that she famously walked out of, creating what was known as the “door slam heard around the world.” She is now an independent woman who has become a thinking human being, and yet she is still seeking her freedom from the patriarchal system and she needs to learn exactly what that means.
Nora again, surprises and impresses me with her daring, her vision, her boldness.
And she still frustrates me.
But who am I to expect perfection from our visionaries?