A Doll’s House

A Doll’s House

Drama

Director: Laura Jaanhold
Author: Henrik Ibsen
Set designer: Illimar Vihmar
Translator: Henrik Sepamaa
Choreographer: Rauno Zubko
Lighting designer: Karmen Tellisaar
Music designer: Feliks Kütt
Video artist: Mikk-Mait Kivi

Cast: Märt Avandi (guest), Liis Karpov, Karl-Andreas Kalmet, Karin Tammaru, Meelis Rämmeld, Lii Tedre (guest), Maarit Juhkamsoo (guest)

Torvald Helmer has a good life. No, more than that. A beautiful life? No … better still, more, even more! Torvald Helmer’s life is perfect. That’s right. Perfect! And he has built it all himself. He has worked hard. Strived to reach this day, when he can say: my life is perfect. Because Torvald and Nora Helmer are a couple who have “that something”—a happy marriage, lovely children, a cosy home. As Torvald says, Nora is beautiful. And as Nora observes, Torvald has a good job and has just been promoted. Any moment now, they and their three children will enter an era of new prosperity and abundance. Torvald Helmer is content. Christmas is coming. The tree is big and beautiful, waiting to be decorated. Nora has bought all the presents. Things could not get any better! And just then—they do! An old friend arrives, and then another. It gets even better! Even cosier! Even more perfect! What could be nicer than reminiscing about good times and making new memories in the shared Christmas spirit? Abundance! Beauty! Joy! And just then—but.

The 1879 play A Doll’s House by Norwegian dramatic classic Henrik Ibsen became a turning point in theatre history. Ibsen examined the psychological abuse that usually remained behind closed doors with unprecedented courage and candour. The pan-European controversy that followed the play’s publication even led Ibsen to write an alternative ending for its German premiere, one better suited to the moral sensibilities of the time. Of course, no one uses that ending anymore. But one thing is certain: A Doll’s House has remained in the repertoires of theatres around the world for 145 years. At Endla, this masterpiece of world drama will be staged for the second time, exactly 110 years after its previous production.