“Marriage is cruel and destroys people’s lives.” I mean… it’s a take. In Lucas Hnath’s sequel to Ibsen’s 1879 proto-feminist drama, we find out what Nora Helmer did next – and it seems she’s become some kind of anti-marriage influencer. After leaving her husband and abandoning her children, she got herself a book deal. Well, they do say everything is copy.
A Doll’s House ends with one of the defining moments of modern drama: the slam of a door, as Nora bravely walks into her future, alone. In Part 2, the references are immediate: it begins with the sound of a knock at the door. Fifteen years have passed, and Nora (Noma Dumezweni) is back to sort some belated life admin. Torvald (Brian F O’Byrne), we discover, never signed the divorce papers. The pair are still married. Nora fears she’ll be exposed as both a con artist and a criminal; she’s been behaving in ways that married women aren’t supposed to (read: spending money and Doing It a lot). Ideally, she doesn’t want to talk to her children. She’s also reacquainted with nursemaid Anne Marie (June Watson), who informs her everyone thought she was dead.
