A Doll's House thrust drama firmly into the modern age when it premiered in 1879. Now, nearly a century-and-a-half later, Tony Award nominee Jamie Lloyd and acclaimed playwright Amy Herzog will make freshly relevant a story that shocked audiences and brought forth a new era of theater. One of the most acclaimed actors of her generation, Jessica Chastain will inhabit one of the theater's most iconic roles, re-energizing the play for a whole new generation.
Lloyd mostly surrounds Chastain with dry, sympathetic performances. Michael Patrick Thornton, a highlight of last year’s Macbeth, plays Nora’s pining confidant, the sickly Dr. Rake, with an affecting mix of Weltschmerz and good humor. Okieriete Onaodowan brings low-key decency and desperation to the role of her secret loan shark and potential blackmailer, and Jesmille Darbouze is believably hard-nosed as her widowed friend; Tasha Lawrence has a sharp scene as the nursemaid who gave up her own child to care for Nora and hers. Only the production’s slick, peevish Torvald seems out of step: As played by the gifted Moayed—and as written in an otherwise sensitive new adaptation by Amy Herzog (Mary Jane)—he is transparently unworthy of Nora’s love from the start, and too thin a foil for her burgeoning consciousness. If that lowers the stakes of Ibsen’s famous denouement, however, Chastain keeps the tension high. What may look like a marital crisis is truly, for Nora, a matter of life and death. And as Chastain grasps her way to a final decision, she quietly, firmly brings down the house.
Those final moments are in stark contrast to the main body of the play. There is no set decoration, no props. When characters put on dresses, have parties, freak out over letters, and—most infamously in Nora’s case—slam the door on the family home, there are none of those things. The characters say they are doing things, but they are just speaking to each other. The Helmer children, Ivar, Bob, and Emmy are mentioned, they are played with and chided—but they are not seen. This stylistic trickiness is seductive at the start, but its obsessive negation of any conventions begins to annoy; thankfully the excellent actors do not.
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2016 | Off-Broadway |
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New Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Amy Herzog |
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Adaptation | Amy Herzog |
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play | Arian Moayed |
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play | Jessica Chastain |
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design of a Play | Ben Ringham |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Jessica Chastain |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Arian Moayed |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Jamie Lloyd |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | A Doll's House |
2023 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play | Jessica Chastain |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Jessica Chastain |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Jamie Lloyd |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Jon Clark |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Arian Moayed |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | A Doll's House |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Ben & Max Ringham |
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