In this revisionist Broadway
season (the wheelchair in Glass Menagerie), the world’s most famous play
about marriage, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, gets a refreshing sequel with A
Doll’s House Part II, by Lucas Hnath. In fact, it’s better than the
1879 play from which it derives.
In the fifteen years since
she walked out on Torvald and their children, Nora has done very well for
herself and is a rich woman. However, nineteenth-century laws prevent her from
being a free agent. Particularly while married, she could be put in jail for
what she has accomplished. “Twenty to thirty years from now marriage will be a
thing of the past,” Nora says confidently—a line that gets a big laugh.
Nora has come to secure the
divorce that Torvald denied her. Indeed, he has explained her absence by
saying she is dead. The family retainer, Anne Marie—played with heart and humor
by Jayne Houdyshell—ultimately must defend her employer.
Nora’s formidable daughter,
Condola Rashad (recently Juliet against Orlando Bloom’s Romeo), is concerned
that Nora’s visit might throw a wrench in to her imminent marriage to a
conservative banker like her father. Cast against type, Oscar-winning Chris
Cooper’s Torvald is sympathetic and almost crushable. Think of all the
repulsive Torvalds we’ve seen.
The great Laurie Metcalf
gives another blazing performance on Broadway. You feel everything that her
Nora feels. When she must connive to get her way, her wit and ingenuity are
never in doubt. Even against oppressive tradition, she persists. She is Wendy
Davis, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Sally Yates, Kirsten Gillibrand, Gabrielle Giffords, the Notorious RBG, and HRC, winner of the popular vote.
Contemporary language set
against nineteenth-century costume suits the ensemble, as do a couple of
anomalous twentieth-century devices: a water bottle, a box of tissues.
Café Un Deux Trois (123 West
44th St) makes a famous country paté first course and delicious
Boeuf Bourguignon, though doesn’t hone strictly to a French menu. An institution
since its splashy opening in 1977, Un Deux Trois evokes the eighties and
parties hard late at night once the play is over. It’s packed early for the
pre-theatre prix fixe, three courses for $35, available from 3:30 p.m. until
midnight, which includes the paté, plus a choice of pasta, chicken or
fish. The popular chicken Kiev comes sliced up (preventing you from enjoying
the little squirt when you first cut in). Pastas are deservedly popular here,
and the fish choice daurade, was in an expert olive camponata, though served
with minute rice. You order off the a la carte menu for frittes. Desserts
included a perfect New York cheese cake with raspberry reduction and a superior
chocolate mousse.
Interestingly dressed and
coiffed theatregoers collect at an art nouveau bar. The banquette near the bar
is a great location to enjoy both the bustle and the flirtatious French manager
with waxed moustache, Gérard. “As in ‘Gérard Depardieu,’” he says.
