Saturday, March 30, 2019

Day 326-Pittsburgh Public Theater -A Doll’s House Part 2-A Period Comedy that Burst Open the Complexities of Marriage



A Doll's House Part 2 is an imagined sequel to Henrick Isben’s classic 1879 play, A Doll's House.  Isben ended his play (140 years ago) with Nora slamming the door as she left Torvald, her overbearing husband and three children. This was a gutsy and groundbreaking move for a character in the 1800’s. Many wondered what became of  Nora who was navigating
solo two centuries ago.

In  A Doll's  House Part 2 playwright Lucas Hnath picks up the story 15 years later. Nora not only survived on her own,but in many ways flourished. Her return stirs up the lives of those that she left behind in this comedic drama that contemplates the complex nature of marriage. 


Handmaid,Anne Marie (Helna Ruoti) reunites with Nora (Lisa Velten Smith)
Reflection
Slamming a door and saying adios can be cathartic but it’s followed by the enviable question, “what now?”   In  A Doll's House Part 2  Nora (Lisa Velten Smith) boldly walks  back into her home  as  a conqueror  of the “what now?”  She is  confident and  financially successful as, what else, a writer of books urging others to leave their husbands.


During a time when women had limited rights to be free of matrimony, Nora’s reason for returning was to secure a divorce. The play jockeyed through various humorous scenarios  that would  secure  the divorce.

The play opened with Nora’s knock, reuniting her with her shocked family handmaid, Anne Marie (Helena Ruoti). Ruoti’s animated expressions as she attempted  to understand Nora’s   decisions elicited a continual flow of  laughter during their interaction. Nora explained that the normal progress of life is for people to change. She felt that it was unnatural to be stuck to someone until death even when that person has morphed into someone totally different.  Although I did not agree with all her views, Nora convincingly argued that marriage certainly is not for everyone and, for her, it was a prison.    
Nora (Lisa Velten Smith) reunion with  her daughter Emmy(Marielle Young) 
Nora’s reunion with her spunky daughter Emmy (Marielle Young) was  not what I had expected.  I was surprised that Emmy harbored no animosity about her mother’s desertion.  Emmy, unlike Nora, was an advocate of marriage. Alluding to her mother’s life choice, Emmy commented that “People who skate though relationships like nomads, never find a person who really knows them.”

Tovald (Daniel Krell) and Nora (Lisa Velten Smith)  expressing there version of the union
Torvald (Daniel Krell) was perfectly perplexed and somewhat angry but genuinely trying to be, in his words, a “good guy”.  The play’s climatic ending was a match between Nora and Torvald expressing their own versions of the union. They fell to the floor exhausted but seemed to agree on one thing; marriage is just “two people figuring out how to be around each other.”

Leaving, I overheard couples joking about their marriages and one husband nudged his wife asking if she was now ready for a divorce.  A Doll's House Part 2  takes place in the 1800’s but  bursts  open the  timeless complexities of marriage.  

(For Tickets to A Doll's House Part 2 and to see what’s next at  Pittsburgh Public Theater go to ppt.org.)

Spiritual Reflection
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:If either of them falls, down,one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? (Ecclesiastes 4:9_

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