Description
Book Synopsis'There's a knock at the door.'
Fifteen years after Nora Helmer slammed the door on her stifling marriage, leaving her family behind, she's back with an urgent request.
Lucas Hnath's funny, probing and bold play is both a continuation of Ibsen's complex exploration of traditional gender roles, and a sharp contemporary take on the struggles inherent in all human relationships across time.
A Doll's House, Part 2 premiered at South Coast Repertory, California, in 2017, and transferred to Broadway later that year. It received its UK premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2022, directed by James Macdonald with a cast led by Noma Dumezweni as Nora.
Trade Review'Smart, funny and utterly engrossing… This unexpectedly rich sequel reminds us that houses tremble and sometimes fall when doors slam, and that there are living people within, who may be wounded or lost… Mr. Hnath has a deft hand for combining incongruous elements to illuminating ends'
-- Ben Brantley * New York Times *
'Hnath's play is less a conventional sequel than a thought experiment inspired by the original. Luckily, Hnath is no mean thinker... Provocatively, the play functions as both homage and riposte, casting a critical eye on Nora's choices and trying to wrestle with their consequences... Hnath writes fast, vibrant dialogue – much of it in a salty, modern vernacular'
* Guardian *
'Provocative, funny and, ultimately, generous... A Doll's House, Part 2 demonstrates just how imposing is that big doorway Nora walked through once upon a time, and the guts it takes to keep walking through it, again and again'
* Washington Post *
'Freedom versus responsibility, attachment versus solitude, domestic stability versus individual growth – these subjects are thrashed out in the explosive context of gender and social class'
* Los Angeles Times *
'Lucid and absorbing... Judiciously balances conflicting ideas about freedom, love and responsibility'
* Time Out New York *
'As much an ingenious elaboration and deconstruction of A Doll's House as a sequel, and it stands perfectly on its own'
* Hollywood Reporter *
'Scintillating and genuinely thought-provoking... a play that asks many-faceted questions about love, loneliness and freedom'
* The Stage *
'Razor-sharp and frequently hilarious'
* Time Out *
'How on earth do you follow up Ibsen's masterpiece? Exactly like this. Lucas Hnath's audacious sequel is nothing less than essential viewing'
* Telegraph *
'Thrilling... intricately layered... the rare sequel that richly delivers'
* Arts Desk *
