A DOLL’S
HOUSE
BY EMILY PERKINS
ADAPTED FROM IBSEN'S ORIGINAL
EDUCATION PACK
CONTENTS
PARTNERS
A U C K L A N D T H E AT R E C O M PA N Y R E C E I V E S P R I N C I PA L A N D C O R E F U N D I N G F R O M :
S U B S I D I S E D S C H O O L M AT I N E E S A R E M A D E P O S S I B L E BY A G R A N T F R O M
Synopsis
P.04
Set and Lighting Design
P.20
About Henrik Ibsen
P.06
Costume Design
P.26
About Emily Perkins
P.08
Resources and Readings
P.28
Nora and Her Legacy
P.10
ATC Education
P.29
A Classic Adaptation
P.12
Curriculum Links
P.29
New DIrections
P.16
ATC Education also thanks the ATC Patrons and the
ATC Supporting Acts for their ongoing generosity.
VENUE: Maidment Theatre, Alfred Street, Auckland City.
PLEASE NOTE
• Schools’ performances are followed by a Q&A Forum lasting for 20 – 30 minutes
in the theatre immediately after the performance.
• Eating and drinking in the auditorium is strictly prohibited.
• Please make sure all cell phones are turned off prior to the performance and, if
possible, please don’t bring school bags to the theatre.
• Photography or recording of any kind is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
SCHOOL MATINEE
PERFORMANCES:
Thursday 14 and Thursday 21 May at 11am.
RUNNING TIME:
100 minutes without an interval.
SUITABILITY: This production is especially suitable for
Year Levels 12 and 13.
ADVISORY: Contains frequent use of strong language and adult sexual themes.
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CAST
Nora Helmer — LAUREL DEVENIE
Theo Helmer — DAMIEN AVERY
Christine Linde — NICOLA KAWANA
Aidan — PAUL GLOVER
Gerry — PETER ELLIOTT
Billy — ZACHARY COX / CASSIDY SCOONES
Bee — MADELEINE WALKER / EMILY ARCHER
CREATIVE
Director — COLIN McCOLL
Dramaturg — PHILIPPA CAMPBELL
Set Designer & Lighting Designer — TONY RABBIT
Sound Designer — JOHN GIBSON
Costume Designer — NIC SMILLIE
PRODUCTION
Production Manager — ANDREW MALMO
Acting Company Manager — ELAINE WALSH
Technical Manager — KATE BURTON
Stage Manager — ELIZA JOSEPHSON-RUTTER
Chaperone — VIRGINIA FRANKOVICH
Technical Operator — ROCHELLE BOND
Sound Effects Programmer — THOMAS PRESS
Props Master — NATASHA PEARL
Wardrobe Assistant — PENELOPE PRATT
Set Construction — 2CONSTRUCT
Production Intern — NICOLE ARROW
EDUCATION PACK CREDITS
Editor — LYNNE CARDY
Writer — AMBER MCWILLIAMS
Design images — courtesy of TONY RABBIT and NIC SMILLIE
Production Images — MICHAEL SMITH
Design — SAUCY HOT DESIGN
SCHOOL WORKSHOP TEAM
Director — JANE YONGE
Actor/Facilitator — VIRGINIA FRANKOVICH
Actor/Facilitator — JADE DANIELS
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SYNOPSIS
Christmas Eve. Theo receives
news that he has just won a big new
contract to build an eco-village.
His wife Nora is excited and full
of plans; he tells her to settle
down, and then goes back to work.
She wakes the children to have
someone to celebrate with.
Theo’s old friend Christine
turns up unexpectedly and finds
Nora at home. The women discuss
Christine’s divorce and the tough
economic times. Christine makes
some remarks about Nora’s house,
husband and history that suggest
she is jealous of Nora’s ‘charmed
life’. Nora reveals that all is
not as rosy as it seems: without
telling Theo, she has borrowed
lots of money to underpin their
business, and is paying it off on
her own. She also tells Christine
about the contract. Christine
asks Nora to find out if Theo can
give her (Christine) a job as site
manager, and Nora agrees. Theo
comes in: Nora suggests the job,
to Christine’s embarrassment, but
Theo agrees.
An unexpected guest, Aidan,
arrives. Theo and Nora pretend
that they are just heading out to
their neighbours’ party – it is Aidan
who has lent Nora the money. Theo
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goes to the party. Nora tells Aidan
she will repay her debt in January,
and says Theo’s got a big contract.
Aidan asks for the site manager’s
job; Nora says it’s taken. Aidan
walks her to the party, and says
goodbye. Nora goes back to check
on the sleeping children and finds
Aidan still at her house. When she
tells him to get out, he hassles her
and discovers she hasn’t told Theo
about the loan. Aidan blackmails
Nora: unless she makes Theo
employ him, he will tell Theo of her
debt. She brings up an accident that
has ruined Aidan’s reputation, but
he brushes it off and leaves. Later,
Nora suggests that Theo should
hire Aidan. Theo says Aidan caused
the accident and can’t be trusted.
Christmas Day. Nora plays
with the children. Theo and his
wealthy friend Gerry arrive. Gerry
enjoys the love and comfort of
Nora’s family life. Nora stops Theo
from answering his cell phone in
family time. She checks the number
when Theo and Gerry take the kids
out: its Aidan calling. Theo comes
back without the children. Nora
panics. However, the kids return
just as Christine arrives. She talks
about seeing the man paralysed
in the accident. Nora changes the
subject to Christmas rituals, and
conducts one for luck, but remains
on edge.
Later, Christine urges Nora to
tell Theo the truth. Christine thinks
Gerry has loaned Nora the money,
as he clearly fancies Nora. Nora
suggests Christine should look for
another job as the site manager
position isn’t certain. Christine
goes to buy cigarettes.
Theo takes the kids out. Gerry
and Nora discuss the past. Gerry
says goodbye; he’s ill, and needs
treatment in Mexico. Then he tells
Nora he’s in love with her, and asks
her to run away with him. She says
no. He pushes her for a kiss; she
fights him off. He leaves, saying she
has been teasing him in the hope
of inheriting his money. Christine
comes back with Aidan, whom she
met at the shops. She goes to find
Theo and the kids; Nora tells Aidan
he can’t stay, but that he has got the
job– and he leaves happy.
Later, Nora tells Theo they
should go on holiday, to get him
out of Aidan’s reach. Theo gets
tetchy; Christine feels awkward;
Gerry blunders back, drunk. The
situation becomes tense. Theo
makes Nora show off her ‘party
piece’ dance. She does, on the
condition that Theo will go away
with her the next day.
Boxing Day. Christine is
minding the kids. Aidan turns
up, and Christine discovers he
lent Nora the money. Aidan tells
Christine what happened in the
accident: a worker fell off the
roof, and instead of ringing the
ambulance, Aidan rang the boss,
who told him there was no accident
insurance at their site, and to take
the worker to Theo’s building site,
which was insured.
Theo and Nora come home,
drunk. Theo tries to throw Aidan
out. Aidan thanks him for the job,
then sees Theo is confused and
tells him about Nora’s loan. The
truth comes out: Nora has forged
Theo’s name on a bank loan to
clear her debt; Theo has turned
down a kickback from Aidan for
his role in the accident fraud.
Christine convinces Aidan to
leave, threatening vengence. Theo
and Nora face each other over
the fallout of their lies and the
wreckage of their lives – and Nora
has to decide what to do next.
05
ABOUT
HENRIK IBSEN
Father of realist theatre (and two children)
Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828
– 1906) was born and raised in
Skein, Norway. His first job was
as an apothecary’s apprentice,
and at the age of 18, he fathered
a son, Hans, after an affair with
his employer’s maid.
Ibsen wrote his first play,
Catiline, at the age of 20. Though
rejected by the Christiania
Theatre, it was privately published
in 1850 under the pseudonym
Brynjolf Bjarme. Christiana
Theatre accepted his second
play, The Burial Mound, which was
staged in 1850 under the same
pseudonym.
Having failed his university
entrance exams, Ibsen spent
the early 1850s working in the
Norwegian Theatre in Bergen and
writing plays; some were staged,
but none successful. In 1857 he took
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a job at the Christiania Theatre.
In 1858, his play The Vikings of
Helgeland was rejected by The Royal
Theatre, Copenhagen, because of
its ‘crudeness’, so Ibsen produced it
himself at the Christiania National
Theatre later that year. He also
married Suzannah Thoresen, and
they had a son, Sigurd, in 1859.
The 1860s began badly for
Ibsen: he was attacked by the
theatre’s Board for “lack of
enterprise” and in 1862 the theatre
company went bankrupt so Ibsen
lost his job. However, he continued
to write – not just plays, but poems
and articles, some of which found
willing publishers. In 1863, Ibsen
was awarded a grant to study art
and literature in Rome, which he
took up in 1864 after producing
another of his own plays, The
Pretenders, in Christiania. The
“Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Ibsen
wrote numerous plays, including some of his
most famous: The Wild Duck, Ghosts, Hedda
Gabler, The Master Builder and Little Eyolf. ”
Italian trip inspired a ‘dramatic
poem’, Brand, which was published
in 1866 and well-received.
Ibsen was awarded an annual
government grant, allowing him
to focus on his writing with greater
financial freedom.
The next few years were spent
travelling (from homes in Italy and
Germany) and writing: works from
this time include Peer Gynt and
The League of Youth. In 1871, Ibsen’s
book Poems was successfully
published. During the 1870s,
his work attracted international
attention, and he was awarded
honours in Denmark, Norway
and Sweden. A Doll’s House was
published in 1879, the second of
12 plays that were later grouped
as his ‘Realist Cycle’. Its first
production was in Copenhagen
on 21 December 1879.
In 1880, ‘Quicksands’, an
adaptation of Pillars of Society,
was produced in London – the
first presentation of an Ibsen play
on the English stage. In 1882, ‘The Child Wife’, an adaptation of
A Doll’s House, was performed in
Milwaukee – the first presentation
of an Ibsen play on the
American stage.
Throughout the 1880s and
1890s, Ibsen wrote numerous plays,
including some of his most famous:
The Wild Duck, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler,
The Master Builder and Little Eyolf.
Though many were produced to
acclaim, some critics continued
to dismiss Ibsen as a dramatist
during his lifetime.
In 1900, Ibsen suffered a stroke,
which ended his writing career. He
died six years later, aged 78.
07
7
ABOUT
EMILY PERKINS
Modern writer (and mother of three)
Born in Christchurch,
Emily Perkins was raised in
Auckland and Wellington.
She began her working life
as a TV actor in the series
OPEN HOUSE, before starting
tertiary study at Toi Whaakari:
New Zealand Drama School.
She later attended Victoria
University where she studied
creative writing with Bill
Manhire. In 1996, her first
book — Not Her Real Name and
Other Stories — was published
by Picador. It was shortlisted for
the New Zealand Book Awards,
won the Best First Book (Fiction)
Award and later won the Faber
Award in the UK.
Emily Perkins is now best
known as a novelist; her books
include Leave Before You Go (1998),
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The New Girl (2001 – shortlisted
for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize),
and Novel About My Wife (2008 – winner of the Montana Medal
for Fiction at the 2009 Montana
New Zealand Book Awards).
The latter novel was largely written
while Emily was the 2006 Buddle
Findlay Sargeson Fellow. In 2011,
Emily won an Arts Foundation
of New Zealand Laureate
Award. Her most recent novel,
The Forrests, was published in 2012
to critical acclaim. Emily is married, has three
children, and lives in Wellington,
where she teaches writing at
Victoria University’s International
Institute of Modern Letters.
This adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s
House is her first major work for
the theatre.
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9
ABOUT A DOLL
Nora and her legacy
Nora is one of the most
famous female figures in modern
drama. George Bernard Shaw
famously described Nora’s
final exit from A Doll’s House
as “the door slam heard ‘round
the world”.
Here are some critical
perspectives on Nora and the
‘feminism’ of A Doll’s House,
in its own time and today:
"I thank you for your toast but must
disclaim the honour of having consciously
worked for women's rights. I am not even
quite clear what this women’s rights
movement really is. To me it has seemed
a problem of humanity in general."
Henrik Ibsen
in a speech to the Norwegian Society
for Women's Rights, 1898
“A Doll’s House is a tragedy in which Nora
ultimately leaves by a door to a world of
new possibilities. Even though the main
dramatic conflict between the partners to
the marriage remains unresolved, the end
of the play sees the tragic element muted.”
Bjørn Hemmer
in The Cambridge Companion
to Ibsen, 2004
10
“The heroine of A Doll House (sic) evolves
from a conventional housewife into a social
rebel. Her sustaining home is exposed as
a spiritual prison.”
“… it is hard to ignore the play's strong
feminist resonances in a [modern] culture
where it is blindingly obvious that any
woman who puts herself in the public eye
will become a target for abuse… it seems
difficult to deny that virulent prejudice
against women and the pressure on them
to behave in certain ways still exist. Ibsen
himself wrote in a note on his work-inprogress that women can't be themselves in
an ‘exclusively male society, with laws made
by men and with prosecutors and judges
who assess feminine conduct from
a masculine standpoint’.”
Susanna Rustin
in The Guardian, 2013
Rick Davis and Brian Johnston
in Ibsen in an Hour, 2009
“Obviously in the original play, society
is very different, much more overtly
patriarchal, and I’m interested in how
society has and hasn’t changed. In Ibsen’s
version, it’s about somebody for whom
change is coming inevitably and inexorably,
although she doesn’t know how or where it’s
coming from or what form it’s going to take.
The questions we’re asking are: can
I engender change in my own life, how
would I do it and have I got the imagination
and courage to do it?”
Emily Perkins
in a NZ Listener interview, 2015
TALKING POINTS
• Ibsen says that his play deals with the matter of “humanity” rather
than specifically “women’s rights”. What do you think he means by
this? How might this statement apply to A Doll’s House?
• How do you think the role of women in society has changed since
the turn of the twentieth century? Look for domestic and personal
examples, as well as large-scale public and political ones.
• Susanna Rustin says that in today’s society “any woman who puts
herself in the public eye will become a target for abuse”. If you check
today’s news, what evidence is there to support this view?
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CHANGES AND
CHALLENGES
A classic adaptation
So how does Emily Perkins’ adapted version of A Doll’s
House differ from Henrik Ibsen’s original play?
A DOLL’S HOUSE – 1879
A DOLL’S HOUSE – 2015
• The play is set at Christmas in
Scandinavia — in the northern
hemisphere’s winter
• The play is set at Christmas in
New Zealand — in the southern
hemisphere’s summer
• Nora lives in a comfortable
suburban house with her
husband and three children
• Nora lives in an eco-house
on a life‑style block with her
husband and two children
• Nora’s husband Torvald is a
bank lawyer
• Nora’s husband Theo is a builder
• Torvald gets a promotion and a
raise in salary, which will come
into effect in January
• Nora’s friend Kristine, a widow
and office worker, asks Nora to
ask Theo to make her his clerk
now he is bank manager – and
he agrees
• Nora has borrowed money from
Torvald’s clerk and old school
mate (Krogstad) to take Torvald
on a holiday after Torvald has a
breakdown
• Krogstad has a reputation for
being dishonest, having “done
12
• Theo gets a big building
contract for a new subdivision,
contract coming in January
• Nora’s friend Christine, a
divorcee and failed business
woman, asks Nora to ask Theo
to give her a job as site-manager
– and he agrees
• Nora has borrowed money
from Theo’s old school friend
and contractor (Aidan) to save
Theo’s business and renovate
the family home
• Aiden has a reputation for being
dishonest, because 4 years
ago at a building site accident
something rash” and then taken
to crime to protect himself from
consequences
• Nora claims she has got the
money as an inheritance from
her father
• Nora has forged her father’s
signature on the loan
guarantee, but accidentally
dates the signature after her
father’s death
• Krogstad blackmails Nora to get
Torvald to let him keep his job
instead of giving it to Kristine
• Nora wants to ask Dr. Rank
to lend her money, but backs
out when he declares his love
for her
where someone was gravely
injured, he took orders from his
and Theo's boss in a cover up
relating to insurance.
• Nora claims she has got the
money from a trust fund set up
by her grandmother
• Nora has forged Theo’s
signature on the bank loan
application she is taking out to
clear her debt to Aidan
• Aidan blackmails Nora to
get Theo to give him, rather
than Christine, the sitemanager’s job
• Nora denies Gerry’s accusation
that she flirts with him because
he’s rich, and pushes him off
13
• Kristine, who once had a
relationship with Krogstad,
pleads for him to release Nora
from the blackmail threat, but
he refuses
• Christine, who was friends
with Aidan at school, discovers
Aidan lent Nora the money and
begs him to leave Theo and
Nora alone
• The truth comes out: Torvald is
worried he will be implicated in
Nora’s fraud and is furious with
Nora for making a deal with
Krogstad
• The truth comes out: Theo is
implicated in the accident scam
and is furious with Nora for
her dealings with Aidan behind
his back
• Nora realises that her husband
will not take any measures to
save her reputation, and that
her marriage is based on false
expectations
• Nora realises that her husband
will not take any measures to
save her reputation, and that
her marriage is based on false
expectations
• Nora leaves her husband and
children to go into the world,
‘grow up’ and become a woman
in her own right, not a man’s
plaything
• Nora leaves her husband and
children to go into the world,
‘grow up’ and become a woman
in her own right, not just a
social ‘mask’
TALKING POINTS
• Look at this chart of changes between the original and the adapted
versions of the play. Which do you think are the most significant?
What do the changes say about how social aspirations have altered?
• Choose one character from the play, and write a ‘compare and
contrast’ piece detailing the characteristics and traits that are similar
and different in that character in the two versions of the play.
• The adapted play maintains the original play’s classic three-act
structure, with the acts taking place on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
and Boxing Day. What is the ‘climax point’ of each act?
• Read p 17 of the ATC production script. How does the language
inform you of the period and setting of this version? Identify the
specific words and phrases that locate this version in place and time.
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Colin McColl
NEW DIRECTIONS
Bringing Ibsen to modern New Zealand
This production of A Doll’s
House (in a version by New
Zealand author Emily Perkins)
will be the first Henrik Ibsen
play to be presented by
Auckland Theatre Company.
The company’s Artistic Director,
Colin McColl, believes that
Ibsen “has been much neglected
by New Zealand theatre,” but
that the playwright’s work has
plenty to offer contemporary
audiences.
Here, Colin discusses the
importance of Ibsen, and his own
approach to A Doll’s House as the
production’s director.
“Ibsen is the father of modern
theatre. What was so revolutionary
about Ibsen (and Chekhov) in their
time was that suddenly people
were hearing and seeing people on
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stage that looked and sounded just
like them. Before that, there was
kind of heightened way of acting
on stage, and a heightened way of
speaking on stage. But with Ibsen
and Chekhov it was like it was real.
There was no barrier between what
the audience was seeing on stage
and the way they lived their lives.
Maybe they didn’t have lives quite
like some of the characters, but it
wasn’t artificial.
“I think the English theatre has
a lot to answer for in the way that
they’ve kept Ibsen corralled in a
nineteenth-century, old-fashioned
idiom: no European production
of Ibsen today is ever presented
in nineteenth-century clothes.
It’s always presented absolutely
contemporarily, because they’re
honouring Ibsen’s intention that
“I’m a huge fan of Ibsen – he asked so many
great questions about life and how we live,
and A Doll’s House is particularly striking
in that way… for me it’s a fascinating story
about values and the pressure we put on
ourselves and what happens when change
is not only necessary but imaginable.”
Emily Perkins
in an interview in the NZ Listener, April 2015
the people on stage should be
recognisable and real to the people
in the audience. The language is
changed to contemporary language
– even in Norway, the plays are
done in contemporary Norwegian,
not the Norwegian of Ibsen’s day.
We tend to get these rather stilted
translations that have been done
for productions with a Victorian
setting. But that’s not honouring
Ibsen’s intention.
“A Doll’s House is the most
performed of Ibsen’s plays. He
called it ‘a play of modern life’
when he was writing to a friend
about it while he was working on
the production.
“It’s hard for us today to
understand and appreciate the
sensation that the play caused
when it was first done. In
nineteenth-century Europe, the
idea of a woman forsaking her
marriage and her unquestioning
obedience to her husband, and
leaving her family, was pretty darn
shocking. But if you think about
it, how many women today leave
their husbands and children in one
sweep? They would probably come
to some sort of arrangement about
the children: to just up and leave
your husband AND children is still
pretty unusual.
“Classic plays are usually
classics because they have very
solid dramaturgy: the story-telling
is really good. Great characters and
psychological truths mean that we
can respond to these plays even
a couple of centuries after they
were written.
“About 25 years ago, when I was
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at the first Ibsen festival in Norway,
it was fascinating to see all the
different interpretations of Ibsen’s
plays, and the way that European
directors were interested not so
much in the drawing-room settings
(because if you read the scripts of
these Ibsen plays, they’re all set
in a ‘living-room’ environment),
but in playing around with the
form. What the actors were doing
and saying was completely real
and naturalistic, but the settings
were abstract. And that style has
increased and increased. The most
recent example is from Simon
Stone – an Australian director
– who did a fabulous Australian
version of Ibsen’s Wild Duck. He
cut the play down from 13 actors
to just five, and really streamlined
the script, getting it back to the
basic storyline… It was fantastically
successful; it played all over the
world, including in Norway.
“The other thing I think is
really important about Ibsen’s
work is that underneath this
‘drawing-room’ exterior the work
seethes with Norse wildness and
witchery. That’s really hard for us
to understand in translation. Here
in New Zealand, maybe those kind
of connections only show in Maori
work, where the story is linked to
Maori mythology. All of Ibsen’s
work is linked to the earth and
Norse mythology. Even the names
of the characters mean something
in Norwegian, and Norwegian
audiences understand the links to
mythological archetypes. That’s
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impossible to get in translation.
“That’s why I was interested
in commissioning a writer to
come up with a contemporary
and unapologetically Kiwi
response to Ibsen’s A Doll’s
House. Emily [Perkins] seemed
the perfect person for the job.
She is not a playwright, but like
Ibsen she started in the theatre,
as a theatre-maker. Her books
– Not Her Real Name and Novel
About My Wife – show she’s very
interested in the psychology of
relationships between husbands
and wives. She knows about the
joys and irritations of modern
relationships… She’s come up with
some terrific stuff, particularly for
the male characters. I expected
her to be able to handle the female
characters, but her male characters
are fabulous; they’re quite difficult
to make work today as they were
presented in the original text,
but Emily’s managed make them
recognisable and contemporary
whilst honouring Ibsen.
“Emily hasn’t slavishly followed
Ibsen’s plot, but she’s been serious
and scrupulous about the spirit and
the intent of this work.”
TALKING POINTS
• In an interview with the NZ Listener, Emily Perkins says of her version,
“I’m not sure whether to call in an updating, an adaptation or a reframing.” Which term do you think is most appropriate? Why?
• Colin indicates that the character’s names were originally intended
to suggest links to Norse mythology. Find out the meanings of
Nora, Torvald Helmer, Kristine, etc, and research their mythological
connections. How does this knowledge affect your perception of
each character?
• Now look at the names Emily Perkins has chosen for her version.
(Torvald becomes Theo, for example.) What do these names mean, or
what might they suggest, within a New Zealand context?
• One reason the play’s ending was so shocking to its original
audiences was that Nora’s departure is not resolved – the playwright
does not show whether her extreme behaviour is punished or
rewarded, or whether she returns to her family. This was so unusual
for plays in Ibsen’s era that early audiences didn’t realise the play was
over: instead of clapping, they waited in silence for the explanatory
final scene! How to you respond to this lack of resolution in the
play? If you had to write an additional final scene to follow Nora’s
departure, what would happen in it?
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Tony Rabbit
SET AND LIGHTING
DESIGN
Robert Therrien's No Title (Table and Four Chairs) 2003, which was part of the ARTIST ROOMS collection at
Tate Modern. Picture courtesy Tate.
As both Set and Lighting
Designer, Tony Rabbit is
responsible for creating the
visual world of A Doll’s House.
He explains his production
concepts – from panda pits
to pipelines.
“The main thing is that the
space in which the play takes place
is not realistic in any sense at all.
It’s a psychic space, slanted to
Nora’s point of view.
“There’s no furniture. There’s
only a soft pit construction, with
a whole lot of soft toys in it. It’s an
uncomfortable place to perform,
but it allows possibilities that you
wouldn’t necessarily get in a more
standard sort of set. It forces Colin
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and the actors to find new ways to
do stuff.
“One image in my mind when
I started this process came from
a poem by Fleur Adcock. She
describes this woman in this
ordinary house, but underneath
this house is a huge chasm with a
river flowing through it. I thought
that was such a great image:
you’re in this domestic situation,
everything seems nice and cosy,
you’re doing all the right things,
everything’s ticking over – but just
underneath the floorboards is this
huge dark river.
Two of the key things in
developing this design were
repetition and scale. One of the
depth-charges that started this
process is a photograph I took in
the Tate Gallery in London; it’s an
installation by Robert Therrien,
and it’s this huge table and chairs.
Therrien has gone on and done a
whole series of things like this;
they’re just extraordinary. For a
while I got quite excited about
actually doing this in the theatre…
you know, taking furniture and
scaling it right up. We moved
beyond that idea, but it is
interesting. It’s a great image.
“Another interesting thing I
came across is by a Dutch artist,
Florentijn Hofman, who put
this huge inflatable duck in the
harbour in Hong Kong. You look
at that thing, and it just messes
with your head. It’s witty, but it’s
disturbing.
“Also there’s this idea of
repetition. If you have an ordinary
trivial object you can give it ultrasignificance by multiplying it over
and over and over again. It can
be anything – let’s take a biscuit…
One biscuit sitting on a plate is
nothing. Ten biscuits lined up,
yeah, whatever. A hundred biscuits
is quite good, but six thousand
of those biscuits all lined up is
something completely different.
“Now to the set itself… We had
the idea of this pit, and having
something in it which repeats
over and over. We decided we’d do
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“Ibsen created a ‘poetry of the theatre’ for
those modern plays. The stage space does not
create just a plausible ‘setting’ or milieu; it is
a potent source of metaphors that are integral
and active elements of the plot.”
Rick Davis and Brian Johnston
Ibsen in an Hour
that with a soft toy. More soft toys
are better. And many more soft
toys are better again. And 1,500
soft toys are really, really good!
So our central ‘pit’ is full of soft
toy pandas. They’ve come from
China, and they’re a little bunch
of sweeties.
“Also on stage is a large dead
tree. It will be a real tree, like a
pine tree. You see them all over
the place, where they’ve been
blown over by the wind. Their
roots come right up and they’ve
got big broken branches that stick
out. The idea is to get one of those
and waterblast the dirt off it, so
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it’s this great big sculpture lying
on its side that is an incredibly
organic thing, as opposed to these
pandas arranged in this pit, which
is very structured and not organic
at all. The pandas are industrial
and deliberate, whereas the tree is
wild, and rough, and a completely
different thing.
“In the script, there’s talk about
how they’re living on land that has
been pushed up and carved over,
and there’s rubble and rubbish
around the place. Realistically,
if you like, the tree stands for that
– but it’s much more than that. It’s
to do with the outside world: the
things that you’re afraid of in your
life; the things that go bump in
the night.
“The other thing on stage is a
big thick water pipe. In the script,
the water becomes a big deal. The
pipe on stage is much bigger than
an ordinary water pipe – we’re
going to take it right up to the roof.
Realistically, it would just be a tap,
but here it’s a much bigger than
normal, because it’s from Nora’s
point of view, and it’s a big deal
to her.
“The other thing we’ve done
with the stage is to take the first
two rows of seats out of the
auditorium, and hang the set 1.8m
over the edge of the stage floor. It’s
thrust into the audience. It brings
this quite intimate piece right into
the room with the audience.
“The colour of the set is just a
neutral grey, so with the black and
white pandas the whole thing is
very monochromatic. The actors
provide the interest. One of the
reasons we chose pandas is that
the black and white provides
a really good contrast against
skin. When I light this, I’ve got a
completely neutral space to light,
so that the actors will really ‘pop’
against the background.”
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LIGHTING
ATC Production Manager
Andrew Malmo describes how
Lighting Designer Tony Rabbit
will light A Doll's House using
only four main theatre lights.
"Three of these lights are very
sophisticated intelligent lights with
the ability to change the shape,
colour and beam-angle of the
light. This gives Tony the ability
to change the mood of the scene
through colour changes, and to
choose where the audience should
look by changing the shape of the
light and isolating the subject. At
times he may make the stage look
quite pretty, or he may also flood
the stage in coloured (or white)
light, opening the space out and
exposing the brutal reality of
the stage set (and the characters’
predicament). The fourth light is used at the
end, but to avoid a spoiler you’ll
need to see the show to know what
that light is used for.
There may be some other
incidental lights added in for
highlighting a specific area or
piece of scenery, however at the
time of writing these have not been
decided on."
TALKING POINTS
• In Ibsen’s original play, Nora says to Torvald that she feels she has
spent her life “in a play-pen”. How does this set, and the way the
actors make use of it, highlight or reinforce this idea?
• Key ideas in this production design are repetition and scale. Create
your own design for Nora’s home, using one of these ideas in a
completely different way from Tony Rabbit’s design.
• How does the lighting change the location / mood / time during the
performance? Identify a particular scene where the lighting played a
strong role, and explain what techniques were used and their effect.
• Make a case for or against the use of the soft-toy pandas in this
production.
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Nic Smillie
COSTUME DESIGN
Dressing the dolls
Costume designer Nic
Smillie says that with her
design she wants “to honour the
Nordic roots of this play, and
incorporate ideas Ibsen would
want to incorporate”, even
within the revised context of
a modern New Zealand
summer holiday.
“We are taking a rather 'organic'
approach to the costumes. That
often happens with new work… it’s
about seeing what unfolds during
the rehearsal process.
“Colin and I have been making
design decisions based on what the
actors are discovering about their
characters, taking into account
everyone's response to the set and
their interpretations of the script.
“Our current take is that the
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characters are costumed in the
way that Nora sees or remembers
them, as a sort of stylised summary
of each person. The set is abstract
and has been designed to represent
her version of her world; therefore
it seems obvious that the costumes
would be that way too.
“This means that although we
still want to portray all the things
that are mentioned in the script
(such as that it is summer and
Christmastime in New Zealand)
the costumes are not really a
marker of time, but a symbol of
each character.
“We plan to dress children in
clothes that kids are often keen
to stay in (their favourite outfit
perhaps, or pyjama bottoms) but
that do not necessarily fit with it
being day or night, bedtime or not. “Theo is relatively simply
attired but his clothes have quality
and integrity. His shirt is soft and
feels nice; he wears things that
have a good aesthetic but are not
necessarily brand new.....
“Gerry is a bit more flashy,
showing his wealth and position.
Aidan is simply dressed; he is
neither super-stylish nor roughlooking, allowing for his different
character traits to come through.
“Christine is stylish. She's an
interior designer, and even though
she has fallen on hard times, she
still looks great. Nora herself is
well-presented and dressed in
a 1950s-style dress. It could be
vintage, or something she has made
for herself from an old pattern.
Whatever it is, it is about her
making the best from something
that did not cost her much.
“In the design for this show,
I have also severely limited the
colour palette. Everything is the
same world or language as the set:
black, white and grey, with just
small spots of colour. Basically I
have reflected the world of the set
back onto the characters.”
TALKING POINTS
• Which aspects of the costumes most effectively connect the
characters to New Zealand summer AND to the symbolic world of the
‘doll’s house’ from Nora’s point of view?
• The characters in this production wear the same costumes
throughout. What might be some of the practical and conceptual
reasons for this choice?
• How do the ‘spots of colour’ Nic mentions work to emphasise
particular aspects of each character? When are they brought into
play, and to what effect?
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RESOURCES
AND READINGS
ls, Hilton. “The Marrying Kind – A new production of A Doll’s
House”. The New Yorker Online. http://www.newyorker.com/
magazine/2014/03/10/the-marrying-kind Published 10-03-2014. Accessed
10-04-2015. Web.
Davis, Rick and Brian Johnston. Ibsen in an Hour. Smith and Kraus:
Hanover, 2009. Print.
Ferguson, Robert. Henrik Ibsen: A New Biography. Richard Cohen
Books: London, 1996. Print.
ATC EDUCATION
ATC Education promotes
and encourages teaching and
participation in theatre and
acts as a resource for secondary
and tertiary educators. It is a
comprehensive and innovative
education programme
designed to nurture young
theatre practitioners and future
audiences.
ATC Education has direct
contact with secondary school
students throughout the greater
Auckland region with a focus on
delivering an exciting and popular
programme that supports the Arts
education of Auckland students
and which focuses on curriculum
development, literacy and the Arts.
Auckland Theatre Company
acknowledges that the experiences
enjoyed by the youth of today are
reflected in the vibrancy of theatre
in the future.
Hopkins, Hagen. “House Work”. NZ Listener. April 18-24 2015. Bauer
Media Group: Auckland, 2015. Print.
Ibsen, Henrik. (Trans: Rolf Fjelde). Ibsen: Four Major Plays Volume I.
Signet Classics: New York, 2006.
CURRICULUM LINKS
McFarlane, James (Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen.
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004. Print.
Reis Mayer, Laura. “A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition
of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.” Penguin Group. http://www.penguin.
com/static/pdf/teachersguides/DollshouseTG.pdf Published 2008.
Accessed 02-03-2015. Web.
Rustin, Susanna. “Why A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen is more
relevant than ever.” The Guardian Online. http://www.theguardian.com/
stage/2013/aug/10/dolls-house-henrik-ibsen-relevant Published 10-082013. Accessed 02-03-2015. Web.
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ATC Education activities
relate directly to the PK, UC and
CI strands of the NZ Curriculum
from levels 5 to 8. They also
have direct relevance to many
of the NCEA achievement
standards at all three levels.
All secondary school Drama
students (Years 9 to 13) should
be experiencing live theatre
as a part of their course work,
Understanding the Arts in
Context. Curriculum levels 6,
7 and 8 (equivalent to years 11,
12 and 13) require the inclusion
of New Zealand drama in their
course of work.
The NCEA external
examinations at each level (Level
1 – AS90011, Level 2 – AS91219,
Level 3 – AS91518) require students
to write about live theatre they
have seen. Students who are able
to experience fully produced,
professional theatre are generally
advantaged in answering these
questions.
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ENGAGE
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Post your own reviews and comments, check
out photos of all our productions, watch
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Places to find out more about ATC and
engage with us:
www.atc.co.nz
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@akldtheatreco
AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY
487 Dominion Road, Mt Eden PO Box 96002, Balmoral, Auckland 1342
Ph: 09 309 0390 Fax: 09 309 0391 Email: atc@atc.co.nz
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