Nora

They appear to be the perfect couple – Nora and Torvald Helmer have been married for eight years. Their lives are solidly middle class: three children and excellent career prospects for Torvald, who is due to become a director of the bank in the New Year. But first it will be Christmas, and old acquaintances are coming to visit. And matters long consigned to the past suddenly come back to life: years ago, when Torvald was on the verge of burnout, Nora secretly borrowed money for a holiday from one of his colleagues at work. Now he starts to blackmail her: Nora must dissuade Torvald from sacking him. Nora is made increasingly aware of her role in a man’s world that obeys the laws of the market economy, not only undervaluing women but turning them into the playthings of careerist interests. Her home is like a doll’s house: a realisation that will fundamentally change Nora’s life.

The theatre works of director Felix Krakau have been seen regularly at Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, where he recently produced »Oedipus« after Sophocles and Schiller’s »Robbers« for the Junges Schauspiel. 145 years after its world premiere in autumn 1879 under the title »Nora or A Doll’s House«, Krakau will stage Ibsen’s classic as a timeless story of emancipation.