Production Archive

A Doll's House was first published in December 1879 and was produced at the Theatre Royal, Copenhagen three weeks later. Even now, its tale of a woman, Nora, who steps so resolutely outside the conventions of society, has the power to raise eyebrows, if not the hackles it raised when first produced. This is a story of conflict, of societal pressures, of personal tragedies - and growth. Told baldly, it is the stuff of melodrama; told well, as penned by Ibsen, it is an absorbing documentation of a journey from childhood through a painful, albeit belated maturing into adulthood. The Doll's House is initially a refuge, a childish haven but it shrinks as Nora grows until it becomes her prison. She must decide whether to stay inside, safe but increasingly restricted, or to break free into the uncertain coldness outside