Year 10 Drama Excursion

On Tuesday 21 June the Year 10 Drama cohort took an excursion to the Ensemble Theatre into a very unexpected narrative journey. Henrik Ibsen’s classic 1879 play A Doll’s House gets a make-over in Joanna Murray-Smith’s adaptation for the Ensemble Theatre. In this adaptation there are fewer characters, it’s set in modern times, and some of the plot details have been updated. Whether the play survives the transformation with its original vision intact is a moot point.

When Norwegian playwright, Ibsen first presented A Doll’s House to the conservative audiences of the late 19th century, it provoked an outrage. For the time, its themes of female rebelliousness and dishonest behaviour were downright scandalous. No one could imagine a wife leaving her husband, never mind her children. So much so that in Germany the ending was changed. Ironically, the slamming of the door as Nora left is said to have been the opening of women’s rights.  

Almost a century and a half later, those particular transgressions would barely raise an eyebrow. However, the play opened up hearty discourse with the girls because Ibsen’s play isn’t just about public morality, it’s about the complexity of relationships and the inherent flaws in human nature.

The girls will study the original play in Term 4 when they begin their IB Theatre and HSC Drama studies, it will be interesting to compare the longevity of ideas and the morality of human interactions.

– Kathryn Smith
Drama Teacher