A Doll’s House

This is the finest piece of theatre I have seen this year! I recommend it wholeheartedly to all Brisbane Festival visitors who enjoy live theatre.

Lally Katz adopts an accessible modern prose style, salted by repetiteur passages. This works nicely, requiring neither an orchestra nor actors with trained singing voices. The whole production is visually stunning and performed beautifully.

Credit there to Designer Dan Potra (backed ably by Costume Makers: Millie Adams, Bianca Bulley and Michelle Wiki; and Wardrobe Coordinator Nathalie Ryner). Even his actors are coloured to match their costumes!

Director notorious for his edgy style, Steven Mitchell Wright, wielded his whip to great effect on Helen Christinson (Nora Helmer), Hugh Parker (Torvald Helmer), Cienda McNamara (Christine), Chris Beckey (Krogstad) and Damien Cassidy (Dr Rank).

As the door bangs on Nora’s departure from her home and marriage, and we shuffle out of the theatre, it is with the belief we have just experienced a memorable piece of classical theatre.

This production provides many themes for discussion: Is it about marriage in general or about women’s suffrage in the late 19^thcentury? Who triggered the women’s suffrage movement – Ibsen in this play? Did Lawyer and later husband of Emmaline Pankhurst in 1870 and 1882 start it with his legislations to allow women to keep their own possessions, money they had earned themselves, bequests and endowments at separation?

Go see for yourself!

Jay McKee

Photographer: Dylan Evans