Review: The Door Slams Back in Lucas Hnath's A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2

When a classic play from the past is revived, there's always the temptation to point out its relevance to today, or at least to present it through a contemporary lens. In some ways, that's what playwright Lucas Hnath is doing with his entirely new play, A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2, where characters from Ibsen's 1879 drama rehash the events that led to the play's famous ending and introduce subsequent events of Hnath's own invention.

Though designer David Zinn dresses the four actors in period garb, the dialogue is contemporary American English and, as the audience enters, the pre-show music is of young women aggressively rocking out. Large letters hanging above the blank walls of designer Miriam Buether's barely furnished set spell out the name of the play, suggesting that for the next 90 minutes we'll be witnessing a gallery installation on display.

In Ibsen's original, Norwegian banker Torvald treats his wife Nora exactly the way his patriarchal society tells him women wish to be treated. While never physically abusive or verbally cruel, she is, nevertheless, to him a prized possession. As the title suggests, he treats her as a beloved plaything who cannot get along without his care, never considering the complex adult she is.

Ibsen ends his drama with Nora declaring that she cannot find out who she truly is within the confines of their marriage. She leaves him her keys and wedding ring and walks out the door, slamming it behind her.

Hnath takes us 15 years from where Ibsen left off. Under a pseudonym, Nora (Laurie Metcalf) has become a wildly successful writer whose books denounce the concept of marriage. She sees vowing to commit to another person until death, not knowing what kind of person he or she may become in the future, as a foolish practice that constricts personal growth.

"20, 30 years from now," she declares, "marriage will be a thing of the past, and those in the future will look back on us, and they'll be in shock, in total -- just awe -- at how stupid we are, how backwards our thinking, how sad it is that we put ourselves through this completely unnecessary process of self-torture."

She envisions a world where everyone can take on multiple spouses for whatever amount of time they please, and there will be no jealousy.

She explains all this to her former housekeeper, Anne Marie (Jayne Houdyshell), when she returns to her former home to take care of an urgent matter. It seems she was under the impression that Torvald had divorced her 15 years ago. He never did. This means that, under the law, she illegally signed contracts and underwent business dealings without her husband's consent.

Nora's now facing the possibility of jail time because a judge, whose wife left him after reading one of her books, discovered her real name and marital status. While a man can obtain a divorce simply by signing the necessary papers, a wife cannot divorce her husband without proving him to be abusive.

Sympathy is certainly in Nora's favor until legitimate points about her actions are brought up. Anne Marie reminds Nora that when she left her husband, she also left their small children with no mother. In order to keep her employment, Anne Marie had no choice but to take on the responsibility of raising them, at the expense of being there to raise her own child.

When Nora is reunited with Torvald (Chris Cooper), he points out that he had no idea she was dissatisfied with their marriage until she voiced her complaints to him and that he was willing to talk about their issues and try to work things out before she walked out on him. ("The moment you brought the problems to light, you walked out the door. That's shitty if you ask me.")

A conversation with her now adult daughter, Emmy (Condola Rashad), reveals why Torvald granting Nora a divorce would be a more complicated matter than she expected. Emmy also explains how she has no interest in reading her mother's books because, after a childhood of witnessing her father's loneliness, she is now engaged and looking forward to being a wife. ("I want to be held. I want to be possessed. I want to be somebody's something.")

Emmy's further reasons for admonishing Nora bring to mind arguments that arise today when younger women declare that they don't need feminism, just as Anne Marie reflects the opinions of many low-income women who claim that fighting for equal rights is a luxury they can't afford.

Director Sam Gold's invigorating production showcases four stellar performances. Metcalf is a master of drawing out comedy that's firmly anchored in realism. Her Nora is a determined fighter who is accustomed to being a liberating influence among her admirers and her confusion at having her arguments challenged by those she's trying to benefit is an eye-opening experience.

Cooper's Torvald is a gentle, wounded man who honestly feels he was wronged but is willing to have the discussion with Nora that he insists they should have had 15 years ago.

Houdyshell's Anne Marie is a dry and stoic presence that deflates Nora's pride in her accomplishments by pointing out the reality she never sees and Rashad effectively conveys the maturity of a young woman forced to grow up early. Her Emmy is the strong, intelligent free-thinker Nora would hope her to be, despite fully rejecting her mother's beliefs.

While Hnath isn't making a villain out of a Nora, the arguments against her actions and ideas received loud and animated reactions from much of the audience when this reviewer attended. This is a play that will no doubt provoke discussion, particularly discussion about the fact that a Broadway play that debates issues regarding a woman's fight against institutionalized sexism was written and directed by men.