‘AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE’: Jeremy Strong. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
By Henrik Ibsen
Adapted by Amy Herzog
Directed by Sam Gold
Through June 16, 2024
Circle in the Square
235 West 50^th Street
(212-239-6200), www.anenemyofthepeopleplay.com

By David NouNou

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was often called “the father of modern drama” because his stories focused on realism and social issues, so it is gratifying indeed to see a topical play such as the thought-provoking An Enemy of the People mounted this year on Broadway. What a difference a brilliant adaptation makes.

It was last produced in 2012 by the Manhattan Theatre Club with a listless and tepid adaptation by British playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz,  dull leads consisting of Boyd Gaines and Richard Thomas and misguided direction by Doug Hughes. Fast forward to March 2024: Amy Herzog has provided a heart-pounding adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People.

It updates Ibsen’s 1882 classic tale of social morality and responsibility, public health, fear of disease, and political grandstanding. It is a cautionary tale about science and sanity and the uprooting of everything sane and rational to universal irrationality of the masses and small-town corruption.

Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Jeremy Strong) has recently returned back to his small town in Norway with his daughter, Petra (Victoria Pedretti) and son Ejlif after the death of his wife Catherine. Thomas has been commissioned by his brother, Mayor Peter Stockmann (Michael Imperioli) to approve the benefits and results of the spas for the forthcoming summer tourist trade that will be arriving for health purposes.

Midway through the results, Dr. Stockman discovers the spas are contaminated and built over manure-infested pipes with bacteria that will bring illness to many visitors. Everyone stands behind Dr. Stockmann to bring this news to the forefront, including the newspaper owner, Aslaksen (Thomas Jay Ryan) and firebrand editor, Hovstad (Caleb Eberhardt) and let the townspeople learn of these dire situations. However, there is a holdout, the Mayor; he sees his brother as being hasty and feels he hasn’t seen everything from all aspects. Such as, how this kind of news can close tourism down for two years and bankrupt the city. In turn, one by one the townspeople start turning on Dr. Stockmann and his family, firing him, firing Petra as the schoolteacher, and abusing his son Ejlif.

Naturally, the standout performance is given by Jeremy Strong who has recently won every major TV award for his role in “Succession.” Although playing a very down-to-earth country doctor, he imbues his character with passion, trust, and a genial demeanor that is heartbreaking when his pleas go unheard.

Michael Imperioli of HBO’s “The Sopranos”—and more recently in his Emmy-nominated role on HBO’s “The White Lotus”— brings it on: the greed, avarice, turning against his brother and bringing an end to him. He is relishing his bravado on stage and it is a delight to see such wonderful sparring partners.

There is, however, one drawback to the evening: Sam Gold, the director. I don’t think there is a shtick he can ever resist to inject into a play whether it is warranted or not. Excess is his trademark. How can anyone ever forget him inserting a four-piece Philip Glass string quartet into the 2019 revival of King Lear, starring the late Glenda Jackson as King Lear? Or the abysmal 2022 mess of a MacBeth revival with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga in which nothing made sense? This time around, instead of giving us a 10-minute break to use the facilities, he has the actors coming up on stage with the lights on, getting audience members to drink shots and asking them to participate as jury members for the second half of the play, with lots of needless carousing on stage.

However, in the end it is Amy Herzog’s brilliant adaption that makes this revival a must-see for this or any other season, with the added bonuses of Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli giving excellent performances.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 18, 2024
Reviewed at March 17, 2024 press performance.

‘AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE’: Michael Imperioli. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

‘AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE’: Victoria Pedretti & Jeremy Strong. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

‘AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE’: Victoria Pedretti. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

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‘A DOLL’S HOUSE’: Arian Moayed & Jessica Chastain. Photo: Courtesy of ‘A Doll’s House.’

A DOLL’S HOUSE
Written by Henrik Ibsen
New Adaptation by Amy Herzog
Directed by Jamie Lloyd
Through June 10, 2023
Hudson Theatre
141 West 44th Street
(855-801-5876), www.ADollsHouseBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Henrik Ibsen wrote his renowned drama A Doll’s House—one of the first and finest pre-feminist plays of the day— in 1879. Amy Herzog has translated it into a riveting post-feminist play, and director Jamie Lloyd has taken this splendid piece and reinvented it into his usual dreary manner of stripped-to-the- bone-bare minimalism. Remember his equally misguided venture in the 2019 revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal?  It appears that Mr. Lloyd’s vision of any revival is not to deal with the content and detail of the play, no anchoring of the play—just a gimmick of letting it play on any bare stage and let it land where it lands.

In A Doll’s House, Ibsen provided a wonderful grounded play of a beautiful, young, self-absorbed woman chirping like a bird at the onset of the play, to amuse her husband, and by the end to an open-eyed woman of her day to map out her life moving forward. Amy Herzog has modernized the language brilliantly, almost word for word, as the original text to simplify the dialogue for modern audiences.

Nora (Jessica Chastain) and Torvald Helmer (Arian Moayed) have been married for eight years and have three children. They’ve had hard times but now Torvald has been made manager of his bank and money will be easier to spend. Nora is visited by her old friend, the widower, Kristine Linde (Jesmille Darbouze) and Nora reveals her problems to Kristine. Nora has borrowed money from a loan shark at the bank years ago, and has been paying it slowly, paying as much as her allowance permits. Torvald believes the money was from her father before he died, but in reality, to save Torvald’s pride, she borrowed it from a loan shark to pay for his health retreat in Italy to save Torvald’s life.

Kristine needs and ultimately lands a job at Torvald’s bank through Nora’s influence. Kristine gets to replace Nils Krogstad (Okieriete Onaodowan), a man who is her ex-boyfriend. Nils has made shady forgeries at the bank and is being dismissed. Nils comes to Nora to plead his case to Torvald to let him stay at the bank. He reminds Nora that he is the loan shark, that it was she who forged her father’s signature on the promissory note. Nora goes into a freefall on how to avert this crisis. The suffering of Nora and Torvald’s rebuking Nora upon finding what Nora has done is the crux of living in a doll’s house. Nora was her father’s little doll, married Torval and became his chirping doll, had kids and played dolls with them. She has to finally assess her life and realize herself as the woman she wants to be.

Having seen Claire Bloom, Liv Ullmann, Janet McTeer, and now Jessica Chastain, never have I seen a Nora as disciplined as what Ms. Chastain displays in her performance. When one enters the auditorium of the theatre, one sees Ms. Chastain sitting on a hard wooden-backed chair, spinning around a bare stage for 35 minutes not moving a muscle while other cast members amble in and take their positions on stage. It is Ms. Chastain’s alabaster beauty that rivets you to her and with it being a bare stage, you can’t take your eyes off her.

Watching Ms. Chastain start as the chirping doll, coquettish and self-indulgent, morphing into despair and desperation, her disillusionment in her husband, and finally coming to her own resolve and what she must do is an entrancing and a formidable performance. What’s more amazing is that her performance is being given while sitting on this uncomfortable chair. She has to deal with each character, sitting down, and go through her emotions without being able to move. Even in the end when she asks Torvald to return her ring and in turn, she gives him back his, there are no rings to exchange. Wow, now that is minimalism.

Ms. Chastain is ably supported by Ms. Darbouze as Kristine, Okieriete Onaodowan as Nils Krogstad, but Arian Moayed is a different story. Mr. Moyaed’s character starts out as the obnoxious self-consumed Torvald, and his childish tantrum near the end is so over the top that a medic has to be called in. Dr. Lloyd, where were you when all this was taking place?

Amy Herzog has delivered a beautiful translation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Ms. Chastain delivers what could easily be a Tony-winning performance for Best Actress in a drama, and Jamie Lloyd doesn’t even let the actors interact face to face with each other. They are either talking back-to-back, across the stage from each other. I guess this is to show the great divide between his characters. Go see this production simply for the sublime Ms. Chastain giving one of her best performances ever and overlook all the other shortcomings.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 17, 2023
Reviewed at March 16, 2023 performance.

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE’: Okieriete Onaodowan & Jessica Chastain. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE’: Jessica Chastain. Photo: Courtesy of ‘A Doll’s House.’

The post ‘A Doll’s House’: 21st century Ibsen reimagined appeared first on StageZine.

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2’: Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper & Jane Houdyshell. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2
Written by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Sam Gold
Through July 23, 2017
John Golden Theatre
252 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.DollsHousePart2.com

By David NouNou

In 1879, Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House where in the end, Nora Helmer slams the door of her house, leaves her husband and her children and walks away from a marriage that she felt was her prison. Quite remarkable for its day for a woman with no means of support to take such action. In 2017, Lucas Hnath has written A Doll’s House, Part 2 in which Nora comes back knocking on the door of the house she walked out of 15 years ago.

Nora (Laurie Metcalf) has come back and is greeted by Anne Marie (Jayne Houdyshell), the family nanny and housemaid. It’s an awkward moment but soon turns into hilarity at every turn, thanks to Mr. Hnath’s brilliant writing. Nora has not come to apologize or be forgiven for walking out on everyone but has come back to get something she wasn’t given 15 years earlier.

Nora has done very well for herself. She has become a successful female writer with plenty of money and lovers along the way. Nora has written many books under a pseudonym advocating freedom for women who feel shackled by the restraints and chains of their marriage by divorcing their husbands and starting a new life. In the process, she has provoked a judge who has found her real identity and is going to expose her for the sham that she is.

Thus her reason for her appearance at her husband’s doorstep. Torvald Helmer (Chris Cooper) never filed the divorce papers as he promised Nora he would. People assumed when she left that she was sick, went to a sanitarium and died. People felt sorry for Thorvald, his reputation at the bank strengthened and he never bothered to correct anyone.

The wheels are set in motion for what is to be the thrill ride of the theatrical season. Nora not only left Torvald and Anne Marie, but she also left behind a young daughter, Emmy (Condola Rashad), who has grown up into a young lovely woman. Like her mother, she is strong-willed; unlike her mother, she wants to get married to the man she is engaged to and wants to be enslaved by the man she loves. In this case, Nora cannot see Emmy as an ally to get her divorce.

What is absolutely astounding is how Mr. Hnath has taken Ibsen’s characters and given them new and far more complicated lives than Ibsen would have ever imagined. There are so many sides to align with, but the allegiance keeps shifting. Nora, Thorvald, Emmy and Anne Marie are all embroiled in these dilemmas and the audience is marveling at the expertise of the writing and the humor that is peppered throughout the play.

The performances at the John Golden Theatre are among the best you will see this season. The play has garnered eight Tony nominations and is sure to win a few: Laurie Metcalf, as Nora, is a sure shot. She is monumental and a force to be reckoned with. Jayne Houdyshell. who won Best Featured Actress in a Play Tony last year for The Humans, is up again this year in the same category, as is Condola Rashad. They are the embodiment of featured actresses and great in their parts and what a thrill it would be to see a tie where both of them could win.

There is some redemption here for Sam Gold, the director. After he deliberately stripped all the poetic lyricism and butchered the magnificent The Glass Menagerie earlier this season with his awful minimalism, it’s minimalistic here as well, but it serves the purpose. With expert writing and excellent performances, I can easily see The Doll’s House, Part 2 being named the Best Play of the Year.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 8, 2017
Reviewed at performance on May 7, 2017

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2’: Laurie Metcalf & Condola Rashad. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2’: Laurie Metcalf & Jane Houdyshell. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2’: Laurie Metcalf & Jane Houdyshell. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

‘A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2’: Laurie Metcalf. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

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