"A Doll's House Part two" by Lucas Hnath

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre. 

It's incredibly rare that any theatre stages one play and then weeks later stages the sequel, and even more rare that the sequel is not written by the same person who wrote the original, but that is what we have at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre this week.

If you attended "A Doll's House" a few weeks ago, written by Henrik Ibsen, you'll know that the play finished with Nora leaving her husband, Torvald, and family and slamming the front door behind her.

"A Doll's House Part two" starts where the previous play ended, but with Nora knocking on the door that she had closed, fifteen years earlier; but what does Nora want? Since walking out she has become a celebrated but controversial author using a pseudonym due to her printed views of marriage and men's attitudes towards it. It doesn't take a genius to see where her research for these views come from!

Staged in the upstairs studio at the Lace Market Theatre the production has a reduced cast, compared with Ibsen's play, of four actors.

Laura Chambers plays Nora Helmer with such passion; she has fight and fire in her eyes, intent on getting what she wants. Laura's eyes show every emotion that Nora brings to the story; anger, frustration, hope, disappointment, they're all in the rack of emotions that Nora shows us, but when she does get what she had come for, does that make her happy?

Fiona Bumann is Emmy who, over the time that Nora has been away, is now a teenager. This is a character which was unseen in the original Ibsen play, but as a teenager she has plenty to say. Emmy has grown into a really intelligent teenager who understands exactly who Nora is, and why she has now turned up, even offering up an option to help out both her parents. Fiona is a German actor and this is her first role in the UK, and hopefully we'll see Fiona in more shows at the Lace Market.

James Whitby takes on the part of Nora's husband, Torvald. I have known James for what must be the best part of twenty years and playing Torvald makes him look so much older than his (still) tender years. This role supersedes any of his previous roles as Torvald tries in vain to control Nora once more using her history against her. To say that James' acting is explosive does not do James, nor the role credit. When you see the play, you'll know what I mean.

Anne Marie is played by Sue Drew, and in the original "A Doll's House" was a bit of a background character, but here she is right up front character wise. There's a fair bit of ripe language in this play and Anne Marie kicks off the language, and that comes as a real shock, to see a character like this deliver the "F" bomb.

What I have noticed in this cast is the way they all act with their faces, as well as the rest of their bodies. Just watch the natural sideward glances from Torvald at Nora, the slight raising of the eyebrows exhibiting disbelief, the frowning of contempt by Nora, the disbelief of Anne Marie expressions when she discovers that Nora is using her for her own ends after everything that Nora gave up and did for her throughout her employer's time together. And the knowingness that Emmy expresses in her face when dealing with her Mother. 

Physical acting isn't something that everyone can do convincingly, but expressing facially what a character feels in the slightest movements of an eye, mouth, eyebrow or mouth, every slight nuance shows the actor feels their character. It shows they have put themselves in the place of their character, and when they do that, the magic comes out of a performance.

Directed by Micah Darmola. This is a very powerful and emotion driven piece of theatre. It shocks, and being in such an intimate surrounding, you get the full power of the back and forth verbal attacks between Nora and Anne Marie and Nora and Torvald, with the more restrained verbal volleys between Nora and Emmy.

Lighting Design is by Simon Carter, the lighting at one stage drawing in to focus on Nora for one speech in particular draws you further into the play.

Sound Design is by Gareth Morris.

The costumes, sourced by Sue Drew and Linda Croston, are spot on and gorgeous; just look at the photos, they're like stills from a classic Hollywood movie.

"A Doll's House Part two" is at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 4 May. If you popped down to see Ibsen's "A Doll's House", you need to see what happened next!

Photos by Grace Eden Photography.