A Doll's House, Young Vic - review

Simon Stephens' wonderfully fresh account of one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century theatre, with Hattie Morahan and Dominic Rowan
A Doll's House © Alastair Muir
13 July 2012

A Doll’s House is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century theatre, and in this vital, tense account Henrik Ibsen’s play feels wonderfully fresh. It’s a bracing vision of sacrifice and conscience – set in a suburban corner of Norway in 1878, but still urgent and harrowing.

At the heart of Carrie Cracknell’s deft production is Hattie Morahan as Nora Helmer, a woman who is both heroic and immature. Fussy and apparently frivolous, she is treated as a toy by her husband Torvald. Beneath the bright façade of domestic happiness – the striking red and green of their gorgeous Christmas tree – are a tired grey and a cancerous black.

Victorian theatergoers were appalled by Ibsen’s treatment of sexual politics: he suggested the need for women to rebel against their supposedly sacred duties. Here the drama of Nora’s situation is fully developed.

Morahan anchors the production with a performance that’s intelligent, detailed and involving. Meanwhile Dominic Rowan’s Torvald emerges as a controlling and attractive hypocrite. His more sinister attributes gradually become clear to us. We see that he’s an impressive version of an overgrown baby, but he retains an unsettling charm.

The central pair are beautifully supported, with Susannah Wise dignified as Nora’s old friend Kristine and Nick Fletcher intriguingly wounded and shady as the creepy, insinuating Krogstad. And Steve Toussaint is severe yet also tender as Rank, the ailing doctor whose diseased backbone is an image of society’s moral sickness.

Simon Stephens’s new rendering of the play doesn’t insist on giving it a flashy makeover. Instead it is respectful of Ibsen’s formal power. There is a thoughtful spareness in his writing, as well as a keen sense of the petty politics of small-town finance and legal wranglings. The characters’ particular tics are evident, without the language ever losing a fluent authenticity.

Better still is Ian MacNeil’s design, which evokes both a busy domesticity and something much less comfortable. It makes the Helmers’ home seem just like a doll’s house, a claustrophobic place from which any right-minded person would want to break free.

It’s a toss-up whether the design or Morahan will remain longer in the memory. Even if the final, contentious scene is slightly disappointing, this is a sexy, passionate interpretation of Ibsen, potent and emotionally truthful.

A Doll's House runs until July 28 (020 7922 2922). youngvic.org.

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