ABOUT THE PLAY 

 

A Doll's House (Danish and Bokmål: Et dukkehjem; also translated as A Doll House) is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month. The play is set in a Norwegian town circa 1879. 

The play concerns the fate of a married woman, who at the time in Norway lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfilment in a male-dominated world, despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play. It was a great sensation at the time.  

 

The play has caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world of newspapers and society. Many academic papers have been written on the impact this play has in the pantheon of dramatic theatre. In 2006, the centennial of Ibsen's death, A Doll's House held the distinction of being the world's most performed play that year. UNESCO has inscribed Ibsen's autographed manuscripts of A Doll's House on the Memory of the World Register in 2001, in recognition of their historical value.

 

DIRECTORAL VERSION: This vision by the Director will be set in September 1939 days before the World is plunged into a Second World War. The choice of the backdrop of War, is because of the uncertainty in Nora’s world – the Doll’s House – a fragile home – and her own uncertainty in her marriage. The situations mirror each other.