We take a look at what is being said about Jamie Lloyd’s production starring Jessica Chastain as Nora which has now opened on Broadway.
The Guardian: **** “Amid the hangups, all members of the cast excel. Lloyd delivers an ensemble worthy of taking on Ibsen’s masterwork. Moayed intensely spotlights the casual cruelty in Torvald. Skating between sweet quips and eager putdowns, his portrayal emphasizes the disparate nature of violence. Onaodowan is magnetic as Krogstad, bringing a quiet pain and dignity to a character usually colored in blind rage.”
Deadline: “This stark, sometimes chilly production is an eavesdropper’s paradise, so intimate and conversational that all but the most guarded among us will be immune to its frequent enticements.”
Variety: “In this revival, what’s left is a beautiful, spacious clarity about what this oft-produced play is about, who these characters are, what they mean to one another and how they may (or may not) impact audiences of today. There is nothing but dialogue pared down by playwright Amy Herzog (the rare woman interpreting “A Doll’s House,” at least on Broadway) and played with great skill by most of the actors in the production.”
New York Post: “Despite an absorbing performance from the “Eyes of Tammy Faye” actress, British director Jamie Lloyd’s staging is as sterile as an operating room.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “But the soft-spoken intimacy of Lloyd’s production — the actors are miked, by necessity, to accommodate the approach — and the choice to have Nora pinned in place like a butterfly through every bristling encounter, ramps up the psychological stakes, making us squirm uncomfortably right alongside her. The director ably works the spatial dynamics by having the actors — mostly dispersed across the stage and grouped in tight pairs only as dictated by the script — assemble behind Nora like a jury.”
Entertainment Weekly: “Chastain responds to the script’s bumpier turns by treating certain lines of dialogue like free jazz, her delivery filagreed with eccentric staccato bursts of emphasis and omission. Others she drills down on with Juilliard precision; when tears fill her eyes and spill down her cheeks, it feels less like a party trick than a full-body act of will. Dramatic — some might call it startlingly abrupt — catharsis arrives in the last act (there is no intermission in the 110-minute runtime), along with a sleight-of-hand staging decision in the final moments that is truly, audaciously thrilling (reader, I gasped).”
The New York Times: “Certainly it’s chic and visually minimal in the manner of Lloyd’s bucket-of-tears “Betrayal” starring Tom Hiddleston and his rapturous “Cyrano de Bergerac” starring James McAvoy. The black and midnight blue costumes by Soutra Gilmour and Enver Chakartash might be worn on 44th Street today, with Chastain in knitwear and kicky zip boots.”
Vulture.com: “It all ends up making this production of A Doll’s House feel like an exercise that acting students might do to get a better bearing on their characters: Do a scene without props. Okay, now do it sitting in chairs. I started to wonder whether Lloyd might come out onstage near the end of the show and announce, “Great work, now hold on to those discoveries when we do this for real.” The restraint must be appealing for an actor, because it gives you so much to push against — like training your jumping height with ankle weights at the gym. But it’s not to the benefit of the audience.”
Talkin’ Broadway: “Many undoubtedly will want to attend A Doll’s House in order to see Jessica Chastain’s performance. Some will be intrigued by the subject matter or will be interested in this variation on a theme by Ibsen. Regardless, it is difficult to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the heavy-handedness of the production.”
The Wrap: “Other than the music and Chastain’s extremely emotive performance, Jamie Lloyd’s direction is a parody of minimalism in the theater. Props are banished. A few minor characters have been dropped. The actors all wear black (very Banana Republic), the costumes designed by Soutra Gilmour and Enver Chakartash.”
The Telegraph: **** “Nothing in the Oscar-winner’s incisive and immediate performance registers as a movie star having a stab at Broadway.”
Theatre Mania: “When acted as well as it is here, A Doll’s House remains indestructible, resilient in the face of directorial gimmicks. You absolutely shouldn’t feel any guilt about buying a ticket just to see the celebrity above the title, who is a marvelous actor and worth every penny — and who can also be spotted for free wandering 45th Street in the seconds before the curtain call.”
To find out more about the production visit: https://adollshousebroadway.com/