By Meredith Pass
After months of hard work and countless hours of rehearsals, the department of Theatre Arts is ready to put on its fall production of “A Doll’s House.”
Originally written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, “A Doll’s House” received controversial reviews from theater critics of the time.
The story follows a young woman who has been sheltered all her life, first by her father and then by her husband. Accordingly, her potential as a woman was limited. Unable to make her own decisions or to find her place in the world, she decides to leave her husband and her children, setting out to make a life of her own.
The play is directed by Dr. James Tompkins. He has directed 25 plays for the Department of Theatre Arts and will begin sabbatical in the spring. Tompkins has assembled a talented and lively cast to put on the production. He cast third-year actress Laura Early to play the part of Nora, the play’s heroine who defies patriarchal society.
Early is doing her thesis on the play. Referring to Nora’s bravery to leave her husband during the late 19th century, when women were considered property by their husbands, she describes her character as having a “sense of equity, fairness and justice.”
“The relevance of the play in modern society is that some women still look through the eyes of men to find out who they are and what their place is in today’s society,” Early said.
The play has an interesting feminist perspective because it was written by a man in a time when women were seen as nothing more than housewives and homemakers.
