Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, The Doll’s House, written in 1879, is revisited in the critically acclaimed Tony award-winning piece A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath, currently on at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre.
The original play focused on how the expectations of society regarding the role of women restrict them. This is demonstrated by the lead character, Nora Helmer’s shocking rejection of the suffocating confines of her marriage, a rejection demonstrated through her decision to exit her stifling marriage, leaving behind her husband and children. We know only that she is desperate to be her own person, to find her own truth.
Hnath’s Part 2 picks up on the story, with Nora returning to the family home fifteen years later because she needs something. Her return leads to the unpacking of each character’s take on relationships and responsibility, and the play raises significant debates about marriage, freedom, self-determination, and true equality between men and women. In Hnath’s own words: “It’s a play about how much we’ve changed, and how much we haven’t.”
The play is directed by a South African, Barbara Rubin, who has been based in New York for many years, and who’s had an impressive career in theatre there, both on Broadway and Off. She maintains many connections with South Africa, and this includes her involvement as the director of Kindertransport at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre in 1997. That play explained the life of a Kindertransport child during the Second World War and afterwards.
As for Cape Town, Barbara comments, “It’s both familiar and strangely otherworldly to be working in Cape Town after so many years. I visit family here regularly. But this experience has had a dream-like quality of being at home and yet dislocated from it simultaneously. There is nothing quite like the warmth and humour that is so uniquely South African. I’ve missed that. And the talent here is always utterly breathtaking and
world-class.” ●
A Doll’s House, Part 2 is on at the Baxter Theatre until 10 May. Booking is at Webtickets online or at Pick n Pay stores.
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