A Doll's House

There are no real surprises: in its second revival (after two outings at the Young Vic) this is still a superlative production. True, the Duke of York’s lacks the intimacy, informality (and excellent sight-lines) of the Young Vic, but the original teamwork has survived intact.

Simon Stephens’ version, as directed with flair and intelligence by Carrie Cracknell, is a portrait of a marriage in which games of make-believe perfection are revealed as a sham when crisis strikes. It speaks directly to us, not simply because Stephens’ dialogue seems natural without shouting modernisms, nor even because Ibsen’s 1878 play deals with matters of gender politics still current. It is because such care has been taken to build the characters and the world they inhabit.

Ian MacNeil’s brilliant, spinning set is pretty doll’s house, maze and ultimately prison. Hattie Morahan’s award-winning performance as Nora combines childlike innocence with wifely wiles and discovers a streak of steel. Her predicament – blackmailed for having committed fraud to protect her father and pay for her husband Torvald’s recuperation from illness – provides a gripping plot culminating in the famous door slam as she leaves, disillusioned. This Nora has a believably passionate marriage and three charming children including a (real) baby. The stakes are high and the final fracturing is no simple feminist triumph – it is heartbreaking.

Morahan is ably supported by Dominic Rowan as a self-deluding, drunken Torvald, by Caroline Martin as sensible, experienced Kristine, by Nick Fletcher as Krogstad, Nora’s nemesis – not the usual villain but a weak person under economic pressure – and by Steve Toussaint as dying, love-lorn Dr Rank, whose dignified suffering puts the Helmers’ selfishness in perspective.