NEC Theatre Presents Ibsen's "A Doll's House"
The New England College Department of Theatre will present Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House directed by Wallace J. Pineault on November 13th, 14th, and 15th at 7:30 p.m. and November 16th at 3:00 p.m. Performances will be held at the Mainstage Theatre in the New England College Science Building on Depot Hill Road in Henniker, New Hampshire. Tickets are $5 for students, seniors, and members of the NEC community and $7 for the general public, and may be reserved by calling the box office at 603-428-2485.
After Shakespeare, Ibsen is the most performed dramatist in the world. He grew up in Norway and, at the age of 15, left his poverty-stricken family to study medicine. When this led nowhere Ibsen decided to become a poet, publishing his first poem, “In the Autumn,” in 1849. He continued to write poetry while delving into writing dramatic works as well, such as Ghosts and Hedda Gabler. Upon his death in 1906 Ibsen had written 26 plays and about 300 poems.
A Doll’s House, written in 1879, centers around a 19th century woman, Nora, who questions her previously unexamined life. She has been treated like a doll her entire life by both her father and husband, yet is suddenly awakened when her reputation is threatened by one of her husband’s colleagues. As Nora struggles to preserve the couple’s reputation from their blackmailer, her husband’s true colors are revealed. Nora finds herself in a challenging predicament and must choose to embrace her doll-life or leave her husband and children to begin a life of her own.
About A Doll’s House Ibsen writes, “There are two kinds of spiritual laws and two kinds of consciences- one for men and one for women. They do not understand each other, but in the practical matters of life women are judged by men’s law, as if they were not women, but men. In the end the wife in the play is at a loss to know what is right and what is wrong; she is totally confused by natural feelings on the one hand and belief in authority on the other.”
