Theatre Evaluation – A Dolls house Essay Example

by the dark wood and alcohol that crowded the room.

The bedroom was different to all the other rooms in the ‘house’ it was homely and had a warm feel to it, however this is ironic as the climax of Nora and Torvald’s marriage breaking happened in here. Leading off from the living room was Helmer’s office, it was a small and dimly light room littered with papers and books. Torvald spent most of the play in here, always on stage with the door shut and opaque windows representing how oblivious he is to his wife’s troubles.

Other than the office, all the other rooms had windows allowing the audience to see the hall at all times, perhaps symbolising Nora’s vulnerability and that she had nowhere to hide. Nora and Torvald’s relationship as husband and wife changes throughout the play. Initially, the audience is introduced to them as the “perfect couple” this is shown from the first scene where both characters seem relaxed in each other’s presence. However, before Torvald enters this scene Nora is eating a bag of macaroons which is forbidden in the Helmer household.

The way Nora chewed and looked around urgently told the audience that she was doing something cheeky. The idea of Nora doing something behind her husband’s back foreshadows the deceitful events later in the play which lead to the death of their marriage. As Torvald enters the stage for the first time; from his office into the living room, he shows his high status as the man of the house hold by, striding around and grabbing Noras hand and pulling her in for a kiss.

They speak slowly and call each other by nicknames ‘skylark’ and ‘squirrel’.

The pitch of their voices change frequently making what they say sound like the lyrics to a song implying that their love is harmonious. The change in their relationship from this beginning scene to the closing scene is drastic and the underlying tension running throughout the play comes to a nasty climax. This scene sees a change in not only Nora’s views but also, the way she acts/presents herself. Her movements become sudden and jerky whereas Torvald remains frozen in disbelief, the contrast in gestures symbolises the contrast in life.

When Nora gathers herself from the argument her breaths become more regular and this allows her to think straight, she takes her wedding ring off and Torvald’s and throws it down onto the floor. The angry manner in which Nora throws the wedding rings by, raising her hand and forcefully flinging them onto the floor without even looking to see where they went, implies her anger at the way she has lived for her whole life. The loss of their rings is similar the loss of their love; a precious thing that they will never get back.

From the start Nora has used her head to show her opinion by either nodding or shaking vigorously however, in this final scene she has stopped this therefore, showing that her character has her own views now rather than agree to others. Finally Torvald grabs Noras hand like he did at the start of the play but, this time her hand was limp and lifeless like the energy has been drained from her

and the love Torvald has for her is not reciprocated any longer. A contrasting relationship can be seen between Nora and Krogstad.

Before Krogstad was even introduced we learn that Nora is afraid of him by the way she is scared to even mention his name. The moment Krogstad and Nora first speak makes it clear that he holds something over her, however in a different way that her husband does. Krogstads slumped posture and the way he talks to people with his head down looking up through his eyebrows almost as if he is ashamed, could suggest his low status and his job situation at the bank. However his low powerful and casual voice commands the stage and Nora.

The scene where Krogstad threatens Nora takes place in the hallway, no lights are on apart from an orange toned lamp that Krogstad is standing beneath. This down lighting creates shadows masking his face from the audience, the effect that this had was that his voice seemed as if it was coming from Nora’s conscience as if she was punishing herself. The sound of rain could be heard, mimicking the change of emotion that Nora is experiencing. Although Nora tries to stand up to Krogstad ‘You can’t hurt me.. ’ she says this line with an inquisitive tone as if she is asking herself if he can hurt her.

When she says that line she takes a step backwards making their proxemics extremely distant; showing the audience the sub-context of the scene; she is really scared but as usual, is masking her true feelings. Whereas, Nora and Torvald’s relationship breaks down at

the end; Krogstad finds love in Christine therefore, turning him into a better person and this reassures the audience that there really is love out there. Although the tone of the play is mainly suppressive and profound Christine and the children manage to speed the pace up and lighten the atmosphere.

The arguments between the two children are funny as they rival to get the most attention from their mother often leading to laughter and games running around the set. Nora acts like a one of the children and joins in with their fun and games; it is at this point in the play where she seems carefree and truly happy. This is ironic, as she hates it when people call her a child, in a way she is more grown up that many of the characters in the play with her desire to escape from the ‘Doll’s house’ contrasting with Torvald’s and her father’s idea of what a daughter and wife should be like.

Christine on the other hand represents the person that Nora wants to be, she is well experienced and can fend for herself. The way Christine acts around Nora is supportive but slightly patronising, she helps Nora but acts as if she knows what will happen and how she should deal with the situation. Noras costume was a black skirt, and white shirt contrasting to Noras many costumes in various colours suggesting to the audience that Christine has a much simpler view of the world than Nora does. Throughout the play Nora changes herself for each character.

With Torvald she is the perfect wife and uses her appearance

and sexuality to get her own way. With Christine she portrays herself as being able and energetic trying to impress. With the children she is a child herself, she delights in her ability to be able to manipulate herself and other people. Her change in costume is perhaps the only way we see Nora’s true feelings, from blue, to black, red and black again. The blue represents calm Nora and how everything was meant to be allowing the audience to compare the events at the end of the play to the ‘idealism’ at the start.

The black signifies a sinister change in her personality and foreshadows the events to come. The red signifies passion and lust, or her ability to mask her true dark emotions with a brave face and bright colour. The moment when the audience finally sees Nora’s true personality and strife is at the end of Act One, she is dancing the Tarantella for her husband and Rank when suddenly they freeze, putting all the audience’s attention on Nora. A spot light grows around Nora as she begins to dance more and more frantically until her whole body and limbs are moving un-naturalistically until a flash black out occurs.

The effect that this had on the audience was that we could see for the first time the struggle Nora had to keep up her front and although everything looked okay from the outside we learnt that there was an emotion inside of her raging to get out. This was a visual representation of her emotions; it was the only un-naturalistic piece of theatre throughout making it stand out and seem

important leaving the audience on a climax for the start of Act two.

To conclude, the Stanislavskian naturalistic style of acting worked well for this play, and allowed the audience to relate to each and every character. The influence of some Brechtian techniques such as, the elements of foreshadowing allowed the audience to hint at what was going to happen later on, making them think about how the play is representative of society as a whole when the foreshadowed climaxes happened.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Carrie Cracknel’s interpretation of ‘A Doll’s house’ and thought that the addition of the moving set brought the play up to modern day making it relatable to today’s society. Nora’s character played by Hattie Morahan was original and truly amazing, I learnt a lot about naturalistic acting. I would thoughrily recommend this play and applaud both the actors and everyone involved.