'A Doll's House' Review: Jessica Chastain Shines in Classic's Revival

Table Of Content

• More information about A Doll's House on Broadway Starring Jessica Chastain
• Adaptations
• Story
• BROADWAY REVIEW: Superb Lange shines in ‘Mother Play’
• CBS Axes Series After 3 Seasons; Lachey “Gutted”; Stars, Creators React
• Performances in N.Y.C.
• Get the latest updates on A Doll's House on Broadway Starring Jessica Chastain

Lawrence acts as an essential parallel to Nora’s motherhood, bringing a sensitivity and love to her moments with Nora. Lloyd’s version feel slackened in its finale, as Nora realize just how her husband (and recently departed father) view her. Nora’s decision to leave – and eventual departure – thuds along, despite Herzog’s adaption remained tenuous throughout. Certainly it’s chic and visually minimal in the manner of Lloyd’s bucket-of-tears “Betrayal” starring Tom Hiddleston and his rapturous “Cyrano de Bergerac” starring James McAvoy. The black and midnight blue costumes by Soutra Gilmour and Enver Chakartash might be worn on 44th Street today, with Chastain in knitwear and kicky zip boots.

More information about A Doll's House on Broadway Starring Jessica Chastain

Six Broadway productions include Tony winners for Best Revival; Fences (Tony nomination) and A Raisin in the Sun. Stephen also delights in having played Torvald in the celebrated replacement cast of A Doll’s House Part 2 lead by Julie White. Six off-Broadway performances include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Films soon to be released are Causeway, Disappointment Boulevard, Civil War, and DUNE part 2.

Adaptations

Nora tells Torvald that she is leaving him and, in a confrontational scene, expresses her sense of betrayal and disillusionment. She says he has never loved her and they have become strangers to each other. She feels betrayed by his response to the scandal involving Krogstad, and she says she must get away to understand herself.

Story

He preserves his peace of mind by thinking of the incident as a mere mistake that she made owing to her foolishness, one of her most endearing feminine traits. A maid enters, delivering a letter from Krogstad to Nora, which Torvald demands to read himself. Torvald then exults that he is saved, as Krogstad has returned the incriminating bond, which Torvald immediately burns along with Krogstad's letters.

BROADWAY REVIEW: Superb Lange shines in ‘Mother Play’

Don’t miss your chance to see the the Oscar winner take on the iconic role of Nora Helmer, a housewife with a secret that could destroy her perfect life — but is it really so perfect? Find out at this highly anticipated revival, also starring Tony- and Emmy-nominated Succession star Arian Moayed, also a 2023 Tony nominee, as Nora’s husband, Torvald. Academy Award® winner Jessica Chastain stars in this thrilling reinvention of Ibsen’s A DOLL’S HOUSE.

Krogstad changes his mind and offers to take back his letter from Torvald. Kristine, however, decides that Torvald should know the truth for the sake of his and Nora's marriage. My Mañana Comes (Playwrights Realm, Drama Desk nominee Outstanding Featured Actor), Charles Bowden Actor Award (New Dramatist), multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations. Chastain recently wrapped production on the psychological thriller Mothers’ Instinct, in which she stars opposite Anne Hathaway and on the Michel Franco directed, Memory, opposite Peter Sarsgaard. It is a thing of beauty, this play, and a relief to be spared the spectacle in favor of a kind of pure view of what Ibsen meant to convey.

A Doll's House shattered norms in its time, and now, Tony-nominated director Jamie Lloyd and Pulitzer-nominated playwright Amy Herzog reinvent the story with a daring twist, cracking open A Doll's House for a new generation. In this revival, what’s left is a beautiful, spacious clarity about what this oft-produced play is about, who these characters are, what they mean to one another and how they may (or may not) impact audiences of today. There is nothing but dialogue pared down by playwright Amy Herzog (the rare woman interpreting “A Doll’s House,” at least on Broadway) and played with great skill by most of the actors in the production. A Doll’s House was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, and it premiered in Denmark in December of that year. The show did not premiere on Broadway, however, until 10 years later, in December of 1889. Here is a short history of A Doll’s House's early development and key milestones in the years since.

Performances in N.Y.C.

In addition to her acclaimed work as an actor, Chastain launched Freckle Films, a New York based film and television production company, in 2016. The Oscar winner and 2023 Tony nominee stars in a thrilling revival of Henrik Ibsen's 19th-century classic A Doll's House on Broadway, which is now one of the most Tony-nominated plays of the season. Past Broadway productions have received Tony nominations and wins, however. Though the play as a whole hasn't received many New York theatre awards, it is immortalized as a beloved classic.

Nora maintains individual and tender relations, particularly with the dying Dr Rank (Michael Patrick Thornton) or the family’s nanny Anne-Marie (Tasha Lawrence). Nora thrashes to hold her husband’s attention during a feverish dance scene, choreography that becomes increasingly sinister given Chastain’s enthralling performance. In Jamie Lloyd’s minimalist reimagining of A Doll’s House lies a new iteration of the seminal classic. Jessica Chastain returns to Broadway in a new version of Ibsen's classic. Among the musical’s 42 scenes are trips to Gatsby’s gilded and labyrinthine Long Island mansion, a downtrodden and industrial Valley of Ashes in eastern Queens, and a flowery cottage that serves as the setting for Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion. Torvald explains that, when a man has forgiven his wife, it makes him love her all the more since it reminds him that she is totally dependent on him, like a child.

Interview: Amy Herzog and Jessica Chastain on Creating a Nora for Our Time in A Doll’s House - TheaterMania.com

Interview: Amy Herzog and Jessica Chastain on Creating a Nora for Our Time in A Doll’s House.

Posted: Thu, 01 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

This theme is also reflected in the character of Torvald, Nora's husband, who is more concerned with his social status and reputation than his wife's happiness.Ibsen also uses symbolism throughout the play to convey deeper meanings. The title "A Doll's House" itself is significant, as it represents the idea that women were seen as mere playthings or objects in a patriarchal society. The Christmas tree, a recurring symbol in the play, represents the facade of happy family life that Nora and Torvald try to maintain.

But what comes across as a little less than cathartic, in 2023, is Nora’s final realization that she must break free from everything she’s known to go find herself. It’s done as a moment of liberation — a call by a woman, for all women — to stop orbiting and find a new path, free from the constraints of old ideas. Oh, and there’s Jessica Chastain, her red hair pulled back, seated in a wooden chair on a turntable and slowly circling the stage in a simple blue dress. Over time, one by one, the rest of the cast comes out, taking chairs off a stack onstage, placing them here and there, and sitting quietly with their backs to Chastain. A Doll’s House hasn't received quite as many film adaptations as stage productions, but there's still a great many movie versions.

Nora asks him for a favor, but Rank responds by revealing that he has entered the terminal stage of his disease and that he has always been secretly in love with her. Nora tries to deny the first revelation and make light of it but is more disturbed by his declaration of love. She then clumsily attempts to tell him that she is not in love with him but loves him dearly as a friend. Kristine arrives to help Nora repair a dress for a costume function that she and Torvald plan to attend the next day. Torvald returns from the bank, and Nora pleads with him to reinstate Krogstad, claiming she is worried Krogstad will publish libelous articles about Torvald and ruin his career.

Afterward, A Doll’s House plays Tuesday through Sunday, with two performances on Wednesdays and Saturdays and no performances on Mondays. For an up-to-date weekly performance schedule, visit the A Doll’s House page. Recent tenants include Plaza Suite, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and Death of a Salesman, starring Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke. The 33-year-old American Horror Story actress recently gave Architectural Digest a tour of her house in Los Angeles and during the tour, Emma revealed the expensive gift she took back from an ex-boyfriend after they split up. Even if “Gatsby” careens quickly offstage, it will have succeeded in reviving a degree of ambition that can sometimes seem relegated to Broadway’s boom-time past. There has been a mad rush to bring “Gatsby” to the stage after the novel’s copyright protection expired and the book entered the public domain in 2021, giving producers a green light to bend it into a musical.

A Doll's House was based on the life of Laura Kieler (maiden name Laura Smith Petersen), a good friend of Ibsen. Much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband, Victor. In real life, when Victor discovered Laura's secret loan, he divorced her and had her committed to an asylum. Two years later, she returned to her husband and children at his urging, and she went on to become a well-known Danish author, living to the age of 83.

Chastain’s performance is restrained, and yet you can witness each unique moment register on her face (there are a lot of silent tears and, because there are no props, no handkerchiefs to soak them up with!). And Moayed as Torvald is convincing as a man who sounds like a loving, devoted husband but is, underneath, selfish, shallow, ungrateful and narcissistic. But, of course, let’s go back to that actress on the turntable, so placid that audience members hardly notice her when they enter the theater. Thornton and Lawrence, despite brief appearances, are evocative and moving. Thornton embraces a needed curtness and humor as Rand’s life comes to an end, keying into a love for Nora that is part erotic and part protective.