A dark and heavy house fills the stage. Just before the action begins, the house is lifted up and away. It feels like a cleansing of sorts. A declaration of intent. A Doll’s House, Part 2, will be free of baggage. No fussy set or precious little plot. Just four characters and a lot of conversation. It won’t be easy (American writer Lucas Hnath’s inventive plays rarely are). But it will certainly be different.
Just one part of the house remains: the door. This is the door Nora walked out of at the end of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Now 15 years on, with an ominous boom, Nora is asking to be let back in. She is rich and a successful writer. Greatly changed and, until a recent setback, utterly in control. But has the world changed with her?
