BWW Blog: My Theatre Experience on the West End Before the Pandemic

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, I was studying abroad in London. I was seeing lots of theatre and enjoying exploring a new city. When Covid-19 hit Italy we all thought we were safe, we were an island of course! However, like many other students, I was stuck last minute trying to flee Europe to get home while the travel ban was being put into place. In London I was lucky to see a lot of amazing theatre in the short time that I was there. As tickets are much cheaper in London, the culture of the West End is much different than Broadway. It's a much more casual atmosphere, and more accessible to people of all backgrounds.

One of the last shows I saw in England was Nora: A Doll's House at the Young Vic theatre. Set up in thrust, the theatre was small and the atmosphere was intimate. I had read A Doll's House by Ibsen when studying the rise of naturalism in theatre in one of my theatre history courses at Barnard. By far, this play was my favorite that we read in the class. The proscenium set up, with another world existing onstage was comforting to me, after reading so much ancient theatre that seemed so foreign to what I knew. My professor used Ibsen to describe the pinnacle of naturalism. For example, the job of the director and designers was not to give the essence of 1870's Norway (where the play was set), it was to actually recreate the inside of a house from that time period. There were no imitations; everything was to be exactly like it would have been in a real home. While this was an interesting and somewhat comforting topic, it felt like that style of doing things was holding the play back in a way.

A Doll's House shows the confines of woman-hood and the oppressive spheres created by gender expectations at this time in Norway. Nora: Doll's House is a re-imagining of the play by Stef Smith, who uses the narrative to explore the expectations trapping the main character. The play was told through the character of Nora set in three different time periods; One was in the original setting, one in the 1960s, and the other in the early 2000's. The different actresses seamlessly float in and out of the story, supporting one another in telling the story. This portrayal of the play expressed how many of these oppressive conditions are still present in marriage culture today, it's just how we deal with them that's become different. In the 1870's Nora's vice for her entrapment was sugar, in the 1960's it was pills, and in the early 2000s Smith used alcohol as her vice. Setting this character in different time periods was revolutionary. It made me connect with the story in a way that I never had before. Somehow, by taking away the naturalistic qualities of the storytelling I felt more than ever connected to the play.

My ticket to this show was 12 pounds. It was the cheapest ticket I have ever bought to see professional theatre. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Stuck in the world that we are in today, I look back on this evening with fond memories, and remember a passion that was ignited in me that night. Through this experience I realized that if we continue to dissect stories and retell them we can always find more; the narrative is never ending, and the problems in our history are ever present today.

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