Pedro Pascal reading a Spanish translation of the "But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" passage from Romeo & Juliet

Synopsis: A Doll’s House is a play by a Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, in some translations known as “Nora”. The play was first published and performed in 1879 and it caused quite a stir at the time of its release. The story focuses around the Helmer family household and their acquaintances. It takes a critical look at a 19th century marriage and a woman’s position in it.

At the time of her fathers death Nora Helmer took a loan in her father’s name and forged his signature in order to take her ill husband abroad to make him better. She is driven to this forgery since at the time women were not allowed to handle their own finances or apply for a loan. She keeps the loan a secret, saying the money came from her inheritance following her father’s death. Now she has been slowly paying it back for some years out of her “pocket money”. However her actions catch up with her as her husband, who is quite well now, is offered a promotion. Following this he, without knowing the truth, fires the man who lent Nora the money few years back. The man becomes cross with the Helmers and as he realises Nora’s crime, he begins to blackmail her.

Review: I gave this play 4.5/5 and honestly the reason it didn’t get a 5/5 was because I wished there had been more of it and we could’ve dived in just a bit deeper into the complex layers of a Victorian marriage. Also I did not really like Nora, the main character, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying a story before.

(FYI I read this book in Swedish as I assumed it would be closer to the original text, and my tip for your if you wish to improve your language skills is to read plays in your preferred language! They’re often shorter than novels and contain a lot of dialogue rather than prosaic descriptions and long chapters.)

To read and understand this play in modern day requires some understanding of the time it was written in, otherwise the full impact of the play is not felt (for example I recommend watching the scene from the new Little Women film in which Amy, Florence Pugh, explains how a marriage is always an economic question and how a wife, their money and children are always the husband’s property).

According to my reading (mostly Wikipedia) Ibsen did not necessarily intent the Dollhouse to be a feminist play but rather he was always “on the side of the downtrodden” (to quote Matthew from Downton Abbey). However, the play contemplates classic feminist themes like women’s rights in a society and within the family. It establishes women have value within themselves not just as wives and caretakers of their children. The name of the play “A Doll’s House” alludes to how Nora feels like she was a doll of her father’s before she became her husband’s doll and how at the same time her children act as her dolls.

Anyhow, it’s a fairly short play and therefore a quick read so I recommend this to everyone who enjoys classics, period plays or feminist literature!

Social Performance is back and raring to go! We’ve set up a poll for you to vote on the play you want to read first (in February). We have a mix of more contemporary plays, and some older stuff, some tragedies and some comedies, so hopefully there’s something for everyone in the mix!