Ever since it opened in 1963 with a modern-dress take on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater has been updating the classics in an effort to make the creations of centuries past feel prescient for contemporary audiences.
In the case of the company’s season-opening production of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 drama “A Doll’s House,” appearances can deceive, for Luciana Stecconi’s set and Trevor Bowen’s costumes look quite faithful to the year of its writing. But playwright Amy Herzog has authored an adaptation that sounds right at home in 2025. The language is considerably less flowery and formal than in Ibsen’s original, and each character is much more approachable, successfully bridging the cultural distance between then and now.
And thanks to six disarmingly powerful portrayals and Tracy Brigden’s detail-oriented direction, this production makes impeccably clear why this classic play is still so urgently important. It feels like the kind of interpretation that Sir Tyrone Guthrie had in mind when he first hung out his shingle here in the center of North America.
By the end of this two-hour show, it’s become clear why this play was considered such a landmark when it premiered, why newspapers were printing editorials and letters discussing its denouement, and why some producers and performers balked at presenting it. But the Guthrie’s latest version feels not the least bit dated, making a strong case that the issues it raises have never been satisfactorily resolved.
“A Doll’s House” takes us into the household of Nora and Torvald Helmer, a seemingly happy upper-middle-class couple on the economic ascent after some tough years. He’s about to be named head of a bank and has recovered from a life-threatening health scare that was waylaid by treatment in Italy. But how that journey was financed becomes a sticking point, for a loan was involved, one initiated by Nora. And women weren’t allowed to do that in 1879 Norway. Was fraud involved? And, if so, will that make her subject to blackmail?
Herzog’s script dispenses with anything extraneous to driving the story forward, and that makes the conflict gripping, as do the invariably outstanding performances.
Foremost among them is Amelia Pedlow’s Nora. For much of the play’s early going, it seems as if Pedlow has taken the bubbly matchmaker protagonist from Jane Austen’s “Emma” that she portrayed on the same stage in 2022 and transported her to 19th-century Norway. Her Nora seems flighty and light-hearted – as her husband seems to see her – until a crisis begins to take shape within their house. She grows increasingly complex as she subtly evolves, Pedlow shaping her into a woman who commands your attention and respect.
She’s complemented splendidly by David Andrew Macdonald’s elegant but self-absorbed Torvald. His performance is a triumph of naturalism, as is that of Andrew May, who brings layered emotional textures to the couple’s best friend.
Both Catherine Eaton and Ricardo Chavira do fine things with their parts, as well, although there’s the sense that Herzog’s trimming (some productions of “A Doll’s House” run three hours, but this comes in at two) left them little time to flesh out their characters’ transformations.
Nevertheless, this is a very rewarding production that presents an eloquent argument for why Ibsen is considered one of history’s great dramatists.
‘A Doll’s House’
When: Through Oct. 12
Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 Second St. S., Minneapolis
Tickets: $94-$18, available at 612-377-2224 or guthrietheater.org
Capsule: Invariably excellent performances make this classic compelling.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.
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