Sunday 13 March 2022

THEATRE REVIEW: Nora: A Doll's House - The Royal Exchange, Manchester


Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is updated and reinvigorated for the 21st century is this modern classic adaptation by Stef Smith. Opening in the week of International Women’s Day, the Royal Exchange’s production is a searingly electric presentation of how the housebound, patronised and infantilised Noras of the recent past and the present have always been with us, and are with us still.

Stef Smith’s script, which was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for female playwrights, crackles with wit and dynamism from start to finish. Very cleverly, there are three Noras: one in 1918, one in 1968, and one in 2018. All are dependent housewives and mothers, and all follow the same plotline: their patriarchal husband Thomas (the Torvald character) was sick, so each of them fraudulently obtained a loan to pay the bills, and they are now being blackmailed by Thomas’s desperate employee Nathan (the Nils character) who is at risk of being retrenched and wants to keep his job. A former schoolfriend Christine comes to visit, and contrasts with Nora’s life in that she works and has independence. A family friend Daniel (the Dr Rank character) intersects the action with his terminal disease. At the end, all the Noras give their famous walkout speech and leave their marriages, homes and children forever. And it was striking how much it still resonated when being spoken by women who are from modern time periods, including the present day. We should not be still having Noras and Torvalds.

Kirsty Rider was the most elegantly traditional Nora, playing the 1918 version as well as the 1968 Christine. She was smiling and gentle and epitomised the Edwardian “Skylark” pet name that Thomas had for her, while noting that votes for women had just come in. As Christine, there was a tougher, more no nonsense demeanour – and a fresh twist on the relationship with 1968 Nora.

Jodie McNee had the mini-skirt and false eyelashes for 1968 Nora, and doubled as 2018 Christine. Her Nora was the Betty Friedan “the problem that has no name” version, with a girlish giddiness and awareness that second wave feminism was crashing around her, but leaving her high and dry. As Christine, she was the blunt modern woman who does not have a maternal bone in her body, and even cactuses die in her care. Childless women still have to justify their choices today.

And Yusra Warsama had the toughest job as 2018 Nora, while also serving as 1918 Christine. She was sassy and lively and gave plenty of cheek – but she was also bound by credit card debts, a smartphone of children’s appointments, and the “yummy mummy” lifestyle. As Christine, she contrasted with a quieter seriousness and focus on being an independent woman in an Edwardian man’s world.

Strolling calmly through each decade, talking to whichever Nora happened to be in his line of vision, was William Ash as Thomas. Always in charge, always the one with the answer, Ash managed to straddle multiple time periods simultaneously with the confident assurance that he was simply right about everything, and Nora was really just a silly little girl who should trust him implicitly. Ash had thoroughly done his homework for the performance, because every aspect of his demeanour and tone matched lines of dialogue that this reviewer has seen and heard from many real-life men many times before. It could not have rung more true.

Andrew Sheridan shuffled around wretchedly as the desperate blackmailer Nathan, bringing a sympathetic yet unsavoury edge to his performance. Naeem Hayat was quietly sensitive as the ill yet affectionate Daniel.

Designer Amanda Stoodley cleverly put the actors in simple understated costumes that were suggestive of the different time periods, but not so fixed that they couldn’t walk over into different ones at a moment’s notice. And director Bryony Shanahan held it all together with the three Noras almost becoming a Greek chorus at times.

Please do go and see it. And not just for International Women’s Day.

Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 9/3/22


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