A Doll's House, Part 2 does disservice to one of theatre's seminal feminist darlings

Pangdemonium's A Doll's House, Part 2 is a rehabilitation of maligned husband Torvald, persona non grata of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's ground-breaking A Doll's House that was first staged in 1879.

- Clement Yong

THEATRE A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 Pangdemonium! Victoria Theatre March 8

American playwright Lucas Hnath's update in 2017 extends the story to open with wife Nora's return, 15 years after she had so abruptly abandoned her husband and children. That was a "slam heard round the world", as Irish critic George Bernard Shaw has it in the patriarchal realities of 19th-century Europe.

This is directed by Timothy Koh and officially opened on International Women's Day on March 8 — a bold choice. Nora, the now successful author of books encouraging women in stifling marriages to break their bonds, is portrayed predominantly in the selfish mode.

Having attained her independence, revelling in lovers galore in pejorative contrast to Torvald's steadfastness, she now has to reckon with the consequences, with little love in reserve for her grown-up children and determined to finalize her divorce to protect the wealth she has amassed.

She is steely and presumptuous, even manipulative. It is clear Hnath offers this as a corrective in the polarized climate of post-feminism rhetoric.