Aisle View: Back to the Doll’s House (Part 2)

For those who wonder how Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 plays without Laurie Metcalf, who led the original cast and won a well-earned Tony Award in the process, the answer is: every bit as well. The excited ovation that greeted the final curtain at the performance Wednesday night, with the new cast, was every bit as strong as the first two times we saw the play.

What’s more, the playwright’s every nuance continues to waft across the footlights. Theatergoers watching the show for the first time—and admittedly, the vast majority of the audience at any Broadway attraction is likely to be watching the show the first and only time—are getting full impact, with no drop off whatsoever. It is also heartening to report that on third viewing, the play is every bit as involving as on the first (which, alas, is not always the case).

Mr. Hnath—who in less than two years has given us three wildly unconventional and wholly intriguing plays, the first two being The Christians and Red Speedo—took it upon himself to write a continuation of Ibsen’s 1879 masterwork about Nora and Torvald, and what has been described as the door slam heard ’round the world. In A Doll’s House, Part 2, Nora’s back—and Torvald, most definitely, has not got her. Hnath has conceived action firmly planted in Ibsen’s world, the action taking place fifteen years after that slammed door; but Nora et al are clearly creatures of our world at such moments as it serves the playwright’s aims, which provides extra resonance.

Julie White, a Tony Award-winner for The Little Dog Laughed, steps into Nora’s peacock-brilliant outfit (courtesy of designer David Zinn) and instantly establishes mastery of the role. Yes, Metcalf was a wonder; but White brings full value, thank you very much. She works at a mile a minute, flitting about the stage with inner wheels twirling so fast that she often seems to be racing on to Nora’s next thought before quite getting the last line out. It’s a race White always wins, until Torvald unaccountably and almost accidentally presents Nora with an obstacle she can’t spin her way out of.

The unconventional casting choice is Stephen McKinley Henderson as the ineffective master of the doll’s house. Henderson is one of our finest actors, an August Wilson stalwart (including his performance as Jim Bono in the recent revival and film versions of Fences) who was transcendent in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ recent Between Riverside and Crazy. Henderson’s Torvald is practically somnambulant until the brisk play’s final scene, when he is roused like an uncaged—and magnificent—bear.

Erin Wilhelmi, last seen as one of the literally bewitched girls in Ivo van Hove’s production of The Crucible, also brings added dimension to the play. Her predecessor in the role was excellent, yes; but Wilhelmi’s Emmy is quite clearly and quite believably Nora’s daughter, and they make a fierce pair when they tangle.

Rounding out the quartet is Jayne Houdyshell, as the not-so-docile housekeeper Anne Marie. The only holdover, but that is not so surprising; roles this good in plays this good are not easy to come by. Houdyshell—looking like a character study from Vincent Van Gogh’s early, “Potato Eaters” period—has her second consecutive such role, the other being in Stephen Karam’s The Humans. So why leave?

Full credit goes to director Sam Gold, not only for his initial work but for the integration of this marvelous new cast. Ms. White, as an actress, is not altogether dissimilar to her predecessor; but this is a thoroughly explored performance, with different accents. Which only amplifies the power of the play. And which leaves us thinking that someone ought to bring back The Christians and Red Speedo, which flourished during their limited engagements at Playwrights Horizons and NYTW (respectively) but weren’t around long enough to be embraced by the New York audiences Hnath deserves.

Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 opened April 27, 2017 and continues until January 7, 2018 at the Golden Theatre