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A Doll's House (Wilder)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  4w, 4m, 1girl(s), 1boy(s)

Thornton Wilder, Henrik Ibsen

By Henrik Ibsen
An Acting Version By Thornton Wilder

An adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's most notable play about a waning marriage and the social constructs between a husband and wife.

A Doll's House (Wilder)

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 4m, 1girl(s), 1boy(s)
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Adaptation (Stage & Screen), Period
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
This is the first published acting edition of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, as revitalized through the lens of American drama master Thornton Wilder. Nora, the wife of a banker, Thorwald, has a secret debt, incurred with good intentions and a forged signature. When her husband is promoted to bank manager, the threat of blackmail threatens to destroy his career and their family life together. As circumstances unravel, Nora realizes the truth of her situation: she accuses her husband and her father before him of having used her as a doll. In one of the most famous scenes ever written for the stage, Nora slams the door on her domestic life as wife and mother until she can learn to be herself. The marriage of Ibsen’s naturalistic style with Wilder’s knack for emotional nuance creates a modern, vigorous acting version of this revered classic drama.
History

Thornton Wilder's acting version of A Doll's House premiered on Broadway at the Morsco theatre in December 1937 under the direction of Jed Harris. 

Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups
NORA HELMER
THORWALD HELMER
DOCTOR RANK
NILS KROGSTAD
CHRISTINA LINDEN
ANNA
PORTER
ELLEN
EMMY
IVAR
  • Time Period Victorian (British and American)
  • Setting The home of Thorvald Helmer in Norway in the late 19th century.
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

REVIEWS 

"...an adaptation must realize that the real key is not just how accurately they have translated the words in a given line but how accurately they have captured the way the line works. This adaptation [Wilder’s of A Doll’s House] is extraordinary. It is extraordinary." - Scholar David Hammond, Read full interview here

"It is to the credit of this interpretation, Thornton Wilder’s 1937 version, that you feel not only for the painfully enlightened wife but also for the bewildered husband in torment." - The New York Times

"If the familiar Henrik Ibsen scenes unfold with unaccustomed celerity and clarity, thank Thornton Wilder, who dashed off this loose translation in 1937 as a vehicle for Ruth Gordon […] Shorn of Norwegian weirdness (all those animalizing endearments!), the script achieves a more accessible, universal resonance. […] Long before she slams the door, Nora has the makings of a modern woman. She employs every resource at her disposal – from sexual allure to ‘diplomacy’ – to sustain a family life that happens to be a fantasy. Hers is no free ride." - Time Out New York

Videos

  • Thornton Wilder: It's Time youtube thumbnail

    Thornton Wilder: It's Time

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Yale and Princeton, was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one ...

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Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

At age 23, Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) became theatre director and resident playwright of the new National Theatre at Bergen, charged with creating a national drama. He directed the Norwegian Theatre in Kristiana from 1857 to 1863, when the theatre went bankrupt. He then set off ...

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