The Flying Anvil Theatre will tackle a contemporary drama, “A Doll’s House Part 2,” April 11-28 at the community theater in Rocky Hill.
Written by Lucas Hnath, the play is billed as a sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s classic, “A Doll’s House,” first performed in Copenhagen in 1879. Ibsen introduced Nora Helmer, an unhappily married mother of three who abandoned her family to seek self-fulfillment.
Nora returns, 15 years later, in Hnath’s Part 2. Casey Sams directs actors Nancy Duckles, John Ferguson, Maddie Poeta and Linda High at the Flying Anvil. Although it is set in 1894, the play was written in 2017. It opened on Broadway on April 27, 2017, and closed Sept. 24 of that year.
Per Wikipedia, the play begins with a knock on the door – the same door that was slammed shut 15 years earlier when Nora exited at the end of Ibsen’s play. Nora has returned. After leaving her husband, children and the nursemaid, Nora became a successful feminist novelist. She returned to finalize a divorce from Torvald; she needs him to sign the legal papers. Nora is questioned about what she has been doing, and the family and the nursemaid express their recriminations of her.
Publicists from The Flying Anvil write: Hnath’s bitingly funny sequel to Ibsen’s revolutionary masterpiece unfolds in a series of bristling stand-offs that reveal in Nora’s world, much like our own, behind every opinion there is a person, and a slamming door isn’t just an end, but also the chance for a new beginning.
The local play starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays. One pay-what-you-can preview on Thursday, April 11, starts at 7:30 p.m. Regular ticket prices are $22 on Thursdays and Sundays; $24 on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $16 for students with ID. Ticket info here or by calling the box office at 865-357-1309.