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Regional Reviews: St. Louis A Doll's House, Part 2 Also see Richard's review of Primary Trust
It doesn't have the cruel metastasizing structure of Ibsen's drama from 1879, owing more to Neil Simon, in some ways. But this production of A Doll's House, Part 2 does have a scintillating cast, and sets up a creepy reckoning for women's rights. Julie Layton, a force of nature, plays Nora Helmer, who returns fifteen years after abandoning her infantilizing husband Torvald, played here by the towering Michael James Reed. Hnath has seized upon a technicality in the original script, forging a comedic new path for Nora and for our own great amusement: she has never actually told anyone in her former household about the time she signed her dead father's name to a loan guarantee, as part of her efforts to save her husband's life. So Part 2 has the freedom to become a flat-out comedy, a freedom ruthlessly exploited in this show. A Doll's House, Part 2 was commissioned and first staged by South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California in 2017 before moving to Broadway for a six month run at the John Golden Theatre that same year. And in towns like St. Louis, exotic plays like this suddenly shine like the echoes of a long dead supernova: very bright for a few weeks, and then just gone. But this one won't give up without a fight. Nora returns home to Norway as an ecstatic feminist, circa 1912. She became thoroughly liberated after her abrupt departure, at least until she upended the life of a powerful judge who's now taking his revenge. So she needs an official document to save this glamorous single life of hers: one that would substantiate her writings on female independence (and perhaps serve very unintentionally as the ultimate permission slip from the patriarchy). And this production feels like a time-travel story, where a modern heroine goes back to strangle the foolish assumptions of men. But as a consequence, she faces erasure herself. Also on stage, Teresa Doggett is fresh and kindly, but increasingly foul-mouthed, as Anne Marie, the housekeeper left in charge of Nora's small children 15 years earlier. And Claire Coffey is surprisingly youthful as Nora's now-teenage daughter, who acts as a charming foil for Nora's proclamations. The costumes by Ms. Doggett are great, and the whole show has unexpected emotional–and physical–depth, thanks in part to Patrick Huber's set, which extends to the back wall of the Gaslight Theatre. Ms. Layton, as Nora, becomes a zealous advocate for a movement that still faced a long struggle ahead, though in neighboring Sweden some women already had the vote as early as the 1860s (Norway broke away from Sweden in 1905). Nora's fierce political convictions add a maniacal strata of comedy, thanks to the leading lady. Mr. Reed, as her husband Torvald, starts out in a state of bewilderment upon her return, as if he were trying to remember who he was fifteen years ago. Eventually they get at the truths of their pent-up resentments, arguing across a gulf of gender identity, in ways that are often fresh and raw and appealing. It's also where the newer play most clearly resembles the older, in the way decision and avoidance and sacrifice and subterfuge all have inescapable consequences. Ms. Coffey's Emmy, the endearing teenage daughter, becomes a subtle comic scorn to her mother, being full of idealism about men and her own youthful expectations of life. Maybe that's the highest price of Nora's freedom, and a bill that suddenly comes due. Later, Mr. Reed's account of a confrontation in the local rådhuset is surprisingly funny and bittersweet. And Nora's temptation of her former housekeeper puts all that worldliness under a microscope, lending both Nora and Torvald a disarming modern complexity. It doesn't seem like a case of fraud at all, in the final analysis. Because when one side or another, in the great culture wars, won't engage on substantive issues, love steps in to force a compromise. And a kind of understanding. A Doll's House, Part 2, produced by the St. Louis Actors' Studio, runs through February 22, 2026, at the Gaslight Theatre, 360 N. Boyle Ave., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.stlas.org. Cast: Production Staff: * Denotes Member, Actors Equity Association |
