A Doll's House

I don’t want to give away the vision that greets the audience when they enter the space, but it does so much to heighten the anticipation for the top of the show.

I’ve been wondering why I’ve been such a Scrooge about holiday commercials showing up on my television screen, but I think it is because it’s been Christmas Eve in our rehearsal room and stage since September! But there is something about seeing this set that makes me feel that holiday giddiness.

So tonight I told a couple of you that I was going to listen carefully and see what I heard more than what I saw, to get back to the root of this thing — the text. I’ll say in advance I’m sorry if was at all annoying, tapping away in the audience.

ACT 1

Gosh that theremin is just the right kind of eerie. A nice counterbalance to the giddiness I just mentioned. A way to signal that I should temper my anticipation because the things that are coming might not all be good, happy.

I’m struck by the picture Torvald paints of the roof tile falling. How does that square with this particular perspective on aesthetics? Is it something horrible that he’s telling her to shock her into realizing? Does it pain him or please him to use such graphic terms.

Great bored husband on the couch, Torvald, while Nora is showing all the toys. “Oh the unbearable suspense,” came across as an indulgence. Something you say because you know she expects it.

Ah, the macaroons. You had such a nice moment looking down at Nora in the chair, Torvald, and she smiles up at you at the end of that exchange about inheritance and her father. Is it seeing her teeth that inspires your interrogation about the candies?

Helene, when you come in and check the stove, is it a chance for you to warm yourself? It dawns on me that the maid’s quarters are probably much chillier than the parlor.

Wow. There is a terrific Real Housewives vibe in this scene between Nora and Kristine. Really terrific changes in dynamic and how you take in what you perceive as insults, Nora and how you look down on what you think is Nora’s story, Kristine.

Nora, do you know you’re making Kristine a bit uncomfortable as you press the line “he didn’t leave you anything?”

Nora, you are so conspiratorial with the line, “You didn’t love your husband at all..?” Are you at all genuinely amazed? You have convinced yourself you have married for full and true love. Can you imagine, esp. in Act 1, anyone not doing the same?

“I saved his life.” I really heard this assertion in new ways tonight. I think you say it about 6-7 times in the space of 4 pages.

Ah! “It would be so humiliating and upsetting to him to admit he owed me anything.” I heard this with particular resonance. It’s the foreshadowing of what comes in Act 3, but amazing by Act 3 Nora is so startled by the extent and vigor of his rage.

Love those little finger rolls on “quarterly interest” and “installments,” Nora.

Don’t forget the extra little emphasis on the “e” at the end of “Linde”.

Nice touch to eat a macaroon Krogstad.

I missed “It’s not the first of the month.” It just got rushed a bit. We need it because it confirms what we’re supposed to be realizing about your relationship with Krogstad.

Nora, really nice assertiveness with Krogstad. There was a hint of this backbone in your scene with Kristine, but the idea that the flighty woman from the opening of the act could be this strong was surprising and compelling.

The interrogation about the promissory note was particularly well done. It made me connect the early line of Nora’s “I wouldn’t think about them [the men we'd borrowed money from].” Now we see the aftermath of not thinking about the man from whom you borrowed money.

“Any lawyer knows that.” Hmm. Interesting how both Krogstand and Torvald uses their experience as lawyers to “school” Nora about the workings of the ‘real’ world.

Wow. Terrific work ya’ll. The energy, the overlap but also the clarity and the discoveries. YAY!!

ACT 2

Nice getting the idea about Dr. Rank, Nora. A creeping realization about the solution right in front of you.

What a great break down of the real (?) reason behind why Torvald must get rid of Krogstad. “Boy hood friend … one of those relationships that kicks you in the face… doesn’t hide it in front of those who count.” A whole new layer of Torvald gets made in that speech.

Dr. Rank … what prompts your line, “There’s something I want to say to you.” It got kind of merged into the line before it. Is this the reason you’ve come over? Does her moving away from you give you the courage to say this?

Really great tension between Rank and Nora. The yes yes no no begging and the refusal. “You get nothing from me now.” So simple and so crushing.

Got a great sense of how Nora overwhelms people, physically. Poor Helene almost fell over backwards on the chair and it just gave me the full sense of Nora’s energy washing over her, over us in the audience by proxy.

The suicide imagery has a nice shape to it. The way they take on a new sense of kindred spirits in this scene (the groundwork of this connection laid in Act 1 with the revelation of the mutual forgery) is something that slowly catches the audience.

“Be my own recognizable bird again.” Love these little lines of Torvald’s. He admits, so subtly, that he only recognizes her when she’s a bird, a squirrel, etc. A great foreshadowing of how when all those masks get dropped, he can’t really see her.

ACT 3

Jenny, are you familiar with the silent film actress Theda Bara?

I get such a strong sense of her in the film of your Tarantella dancing.

“Life has taught me not to believe just words.” “Then life has been a good teacher.” There is such a resonance in this exchange. It helps us see why Kristine is so intent on forcing Nora to confront what she’s done with Torvald. It is also a further indication of how much these two characters deserve each other and will be our hope for a union of equals.

“Have you really got the courage?” This sent me back to the discussion with Nora. How many different kinds of  “courage” does Krogstad recognize, believe in?

The imagined lines to Torvald demanding the letter back nicely echo the kind of familiar tone Krogstad takes that drives Torvald crazy. Nice.

A great oafish drunk, Torvald! You’re making me wanna just punch you. Good. A magnification of his puffed up personality from earlier Acts. The knitting vs. embroidery exchange was particularly gooey and awful.

Telling little slip of the tongue, Rank. “Let your child … wife wear what she wants.”

The pointing to the cushion as if she’s a dog … whoa. That’s low. And right on the money. (There I go using financial metaphors!)

I got such a sense of how much Torvald manages his own feelings and public presentation. Especially during his harangue of Nora when he mentions being still in love … and then stops himself. It’s hard because Ibsen’s made him such a foil, but Torvald is a doll too.

Wow. How the phrase “guide you” goes from ominous to fearful to disgusting in the course of this Act. Torvald first employs it sexually, as he’s managed her performance and then turns it around to the threat/worry that he will be implicated in her crimes and then, when the danger has passed, how he’ll clamp down even more, managing her every move, her rehabilitation into his life.

And we come full circle. “Think of what people will say.” “I can’t think about them. I can only think of what is necessary for me.” And for the first time, we can cheer Nora’s assertion of this kind of selfishness. Previously it was the key to her undoing. Now it is essential to her survival.

Oh this is such good work ya’ll. Such resonance and energy and even though it’s not a “happy” story, it’s so joyfully told. And by that I mean commitment, energy, and intelligence. Now, let’s get the people in here to share it.

by Jenny Madorsky

Tonight was an important rehearsal. We began by walking through Act I simply to see if we could do our lines without too many breaks. We were then asked to speed it all up to a level where it was “almost too fast.”

As the scenes unfolded, I, as Nora felt myself delve deeper and deeper into a frantic sort of wild energy. At first the energy was directed at playing games with Torvald, and then at telling Mrs. Linde “my Secret.” The more bored she looked, the more frantic I became. At a certain point it didn’t matter at all if she was there in the room with me or not—the story just flowed from my lips as though they were a broken dam.

This momentum was suddenly unwelcomingly interrupted by Mr. Krogstad’s entrance. All of a sudden the stakes entirely changed. We acted out the scene, but somehow it felt that the energy was stifled. I felt a strong sense of pent up…MORE-ness. Clearly Ellen could feel it, too, for she stopped us immediately after the scene and asked us to do it again, with everything at 200%. This couldn’t have been more welcome news. As Ali and I threw around furniture and almost toppled over the couch by both standing on it, the scene suddenly flourished. There were moments of LOUDNESS and intensity, but there were also moments of heightened quietness and immobility. And the MUSIC! At the beginning of the scene Ellen played a piece of music composed for the play (I think called “Jagged”), which suddenly exposed an entirely other canvas on which we could paint with our acting (I’m thinking of Ali’s incredibly creepy centipede movement).

As we neared the end of the scene Ellen urged us to keep going forward with the 200%. After my scene with Krogstad, the energy was at a violent boil inside of my body, so when “my dear Torvald” walked through the door, I wanted to simply throw myself at him the way a 5 year old girl throws herself at her daddy after a terrible fright. Every time I had played this scene with Micheal before, I immediately dropped Nora’s “Krogstad interaction” mask and donned the familiar “playing with Torvald” mask. However, this time the change seemed impossible. All I could feel was an intense desire for a hug and an “everything is ok, dear Nora.” Instead, Torvald proceeds to chastise Nora for lying to him about Krogstad’s visit. Since he doesn’t know anything of her secret, and she can’t tell him, the boiling energy suddenly had no possible outlet. To my own surprise, I felt tears forming in my eyes. As Torvald dives into his bird name-calling and cooing and coaxing, all I could focus on was the deep, deep disappointment that he didn’t behave in the way I really needed him to. I suddenly realized that this scene is not just another “Torvald playing with Nora” scene, but a mirror image (to a smaller degree) of the final scene of the play. Nora expects this huge, “wonderful thing” and instead Torvald lets her fall flat when she depends on him most.

I had never read the scene with that idea and it never even occurred to me to play it this way. However, the 200% gestures really allowed for the energy inside of me to manifest itself externally so that suddenly it was influencing me, instead of the other way around. I know this might sound cheesy and vague, but I was actually surprised by my own reactions. I did not “plan” to cry when Torvald entered, all I was focusing on was changing masks back into “playing with Torvald” but the stakes were so high and the disappointment so tangible that the struggle actually manifested itself in tears. The more I tried to smile and laugh, the more my face scrounged itself up to cry.

It is rehearsals like these that make me hope and pray that we can translate these moments of discovery to the stage during performances. Somehow, the play is much more clear when the actions are at 200%. Though it is not naturalistic, the emotions and psychologies of the characters are so raw that it becomes impossible to escape them even for a moment (though they are talking about “boring bank business”).

I think these revelations actually relate to the play itself and when it was written. At the turn of the century (when A Doll’s House was written) theater itself was changing. Conventions such as unnatural footlights, heavy make up, and melodramatic acting were on the way out and the naturalistic forms of Strindberg, Chekhov, and Stanislavsky were on the rise. Therefore, I think it would be unwise to completely get rid of all the over-dramatic techniques characteristic of theater before these men. Though A Doll’s House does provide actors with three-dimensional characters with complex psyches, it also provides us with a highly dramatic and engaging moment in time that should suck the audience in.

Looking at it now, I cannot believe we have yet to do any actual blocking. I, personally, feel like I have a very strong understanding of Act I, as well as a sense that there is yet much to discover about this fascinating and intricate play. Now on to Act II…