A Doll's House

Roll back time to 1870s Norway, a time and place where grown women were treated like children. As a married woman you had no power, no influence, no freedom, no resources and no money. Everything belonged to your husband, and the same situation was being suffered by women all over Europe. This is the landscape against which Nora's story unfolds. Nora is forced to sign up to an illegal loan, forging her father's signature to get the money she needs to pay for her husband Torval's treatment for TB. She pays back the loan bit by bit out of her household allowance. Her husband thinks she's stupid and childlike, and often calls her his doll.

When Torvald becomes director of the bank he discovers the forgery. Torvald ultimately abandons his wife even though she'd acted illegally to save his life. Eventually she realises he isn't worth the bother, so leaves him for good. The excellent award-winning actor Jessica Chastain will be playing Nora, and this is her theatreland debut. The play caused an international scandal at the time and it still causes a stir. In a world where women's pay still doesn't always equal men's, the story still matters. This is a fresh new version of Ibsen's remarkable piece of theatre, created by Frank McGuinness, and it's being directed by Jamie Lloyd at the Playhouse theatre.