Jessica Chastain isn’t playing around in Broadway’s ‘A Doll’s House’

The Rundown

Jessica Chastain returns to Broadway in a sleek, barebones staging of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 masterpiece A Doll’s House, reconceived in a new version by Amy Herzog. A modern take from the mind of buzzy British director Jamie Lloyd, whose pared-down revivals of Betrayal and Cyrano de Bergerac both found critical acclaim in New York. Lloyd’s thriller-like staging sees an ensemble cast circling Chastain’s mostly stationary Nora Helmer as decades worth of deception come to a head, and she is forced to confront buried secrets, a longstanding debt, and the painful fictions which underpin her marriage to the controlling Torvald (Succession’s Arian Moayed).

No Tea, No Shade

Chastain is the main draw here, and the Oscar-winning headliner does not disappoint. Her Nora overflows with thrilling contradictions. Genuine warmth and kindness toward her friend Dr. Rank (Michael Patrick Thornton) will be supplanted, with barely a blink, by an exaggerated and self-mocking performance of “chirping songbird” upon Torvald’s entrance. This Nora has cunning too but is constantly torn on when or how to use it, her calculations seeming to shift line by line.

Particularly thrilling is Nora’s early reunion with old schoolmate Kristine (Jesmille Darbouze), who arrives seeking help in finding a job. We see Nora briefly relax into the encounter, letting herself open up a little. You feel her momentary thrill in realizing she can exercise some power, however limited, in helping Kirstine. And then, painfully, Nora shuts down again, insulted by Kristine’s comment that she is still “like a child.” Chastain delivers a wonderfully erratic performance, captivating and entirely human.

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The sharp focus of Chastain’s work is not always equaled by the production around her. Lloyd’s choice to keep Nora seated, often encircled by her castmates, is unsubtle but effective. When she is speaking to one other character, this bare staging lends clarity. But whenever props or plot mechanics get involved, as Ibsen’s narrative frequently demands they do, the proceedings grow muddled. 

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Awkward descriptions of business around a locked mailbox or keeping Torvald within a particular room prove confusing, pulling us out of the play’s emotions. The weight of Nora’s past misdeed, the forging of a signature on official documents, is also not felt. It is hard to pinpoint why since that remains as much a crime today as in 1879 — yet it somehow feels minor, inconsequential. The disconnect, ultimately, comes from the production wanting it both ways: a modernist staging with some anachronistic dialogue on the one hand, but one too many period-specific details on the other.

By the time we reach Nora and Torvald’s final confrontation, that confusion has sapped some of the production’s energy. If that fiery conclusion remains powerful, it is mostly thanks to consistently sharp performances. Moayed’s condescending, self-assured Torvald is maddeningly credible, while Chastain plays Nora’s final decision as a thrilling release, one that gardened roars of approval from the audience.

Let’s Have a Moment

Two particular moments in this production must be highlighted: one hilarious, one heartbreaking. 

First, there is Nora’s dance, deployed as a distraction to keep Torvald in the room. Chastain leaps from her chair and writhes insanely, then drops to the floor as though suffering a seizure. It is somehow both hilarious and terrifying, a bravura display. 

The second is a quieter scene and a heartbreaking one. Desperate for money and seeking an escape route, Nora considers turning to Dr. Rank. But as she struggles to ask, Dr. Rank first confesses his longtime love for Nora; then confides to her that he is dying.

Nora has nodded dutifully to Torvald, declaring himself, many times, a man of unfailing ethics. Yet at this moment, as sensitively played by Chastain and Thornton, we realize it is Nora, far more than her husband, who lives by unshakable principles. She asks nothing of him and lets their final moment together be one purely of love.

The Last Word

If this Doll’s House ultimately misses as many swings as it lands, it is still ultimately a must-see simply for Chastain’s overwhelming achievement at its center. And, perhaps, to experience Lloyd’s concluding coup de théâtre, which has been sending audiences into a frenzy. While we won’t spoil it here, Lloyd’s final trick is much like his production as a whole: too clever by half, yet undeniably powerful all the same.

A Doll’s House plays at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre through June 10.

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