Review: A DOLL’S HOUSE at the Almeida Theatre

In this overhaul by Anya Reiss, we’re in the cosy basement of a plush-carpeted rental, where Nora (Romola Garai - a powerhouse of self-doubt) has assembled the proceeds of her blow-out shopping spree for the Christmas hols. Before she has time to wrap and hide anything, her husband Torvald (Tom Mothersdale) returns home and is quickly berating and castigating her for the profligate use of their Amex card before the sale of his business has gone through, which (when it does) will hopefully afford them some financial security.

Eschewing the established tensions in favour of relationship jeopardy borne of an unwillingness to communicate, Nora flounders in desperation. When they do erupt, her bursts of confession about a foolish and potentially devastating financial deceit, are unloaded to an old Uni friend Kristine (a gently effective turn from Thalissa Teixeira) who has fallen on hard times and comes a-knocking in the hopes of securing a job having seen that Nora is living the high life via Instagram posts.

It transpires that to fund her husband’s drying-out and private medical expenses after a cocaine and alcohol fuelled heart attack, Nora misappropriated investor’s money from her husband’s company with the help of his long-term worker Nils Krogstad (James Corrigan) who himself previously served prison time for wrongdoing. Now with the sale imminent, Torvald is eager to be rid of the ex-con employee, but ironically he is the only person who can cover Nora’s tracks from the due diligence and compliance auditors to ensure the sale goes through. Tangled webs.

The layers of deception, once revealed, cause the couple to implode in a deluge of expletives, ironically, only to have their financial situation salvaged by a Middle East blow-up which causes oil prices to skyrocket. The damage however, has been done. A sub-plot involves a considerably younger (than in the original) Doctor Petter (Olivier Huband) who is dying of pancreatic cancer but appears flirtatiously fit when professing undying love and devotion to Nora whilst she is clad in a nympho-nurse outfit for a fancy dress party! 

The set by Hyemi Shin is gently comforting, enveloping the action, but it also makes a mockery of key entrances and exits - namely Krogstad’s repeated arrivals and departures to plead, threaten and cajole for help to remain in his job.  

Is the production a devastating and relevant update for a modern audience? Maybe. Does it supplant Ibsen’s nuanced and powder-keg tensions? No, not really. At best the production presents an interesting exercise in remoulding a classic, but many hours after attending opening night, I am still wondering whether I liked what I saw, or whether am I merely unsettled by the incongruities inherent in its determination to appear current.

A DOLL’S HOUSE runs 150mins including its 20min interval and continues at The Almeida until 16th May.