8/23: A Doll's House (Part 2)

 

Our next play is Lucas Hnath's 2017 play A Doll's House (Part 2), which we'll discuss on Sunday, August 23 at 8:00 EDT. The play is available on Scribd and Amazon.

Zoom links for the discussion

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Interview: 

Reviews:

• New Yorker: "Hnath’s invigorating ninety-minute, intermissionless work, is an irresponsible act—a kind of naughty imposition on a classic, which, in addition to investing Ibsen’s signature play with the humor that the nineteenth-century artist lacked, raises a number of questions, such as What constitutes an individual achievement in this age of the simulacrum, when everything owes something to something else?"
• New York Times: “A Doll’s House, Part 2” gives vibrant theatrical life to the conversations that many of us had after first reading or seeing its prototype, conducted in our own minds or perhaps over blunts and beers in dorm rooms."
• Broadway World (compendium of the reviews)

Performance of the entire play

Why did I choose this play?

After Antigone in Ferguson, which placed a classic within a contemporary context, I wanted to find a new play that did something similar. When I read A Doll's House (Part 2), I remembered some of the issues that were raised in my classroom discussions, many of which are argued in the play (I was particularly interested in the scene with Emmy, Nora's daughter who has grown up without her mother). The Broadway production seemed to emphasize the humor, which I must confess I didn't see as strongly in the script itself, and am uncertain about as a choice. I'm also interested to hear your take on how the play ends.