A Doll’s House has been reconstructed at the Almeida with a new script by Anya Reiss. Torvald Helmer is an inept drug-addled financier who wants to sell his business to a wealthy American investor. But the deal is a dud. Without his knowledge, Torvald’s bossy wife, Nora, has stolen £860,000 from a client’s account to boost the firm’s apparent profitability and her crime is about to be disclosed by a bent accountant, Nils, who wants to blackmail her. She needs to get her hands on a small fortune fast.

This cumbersome and intricate back story is explained to us during the first half which is set over the Christmas holidays in the converted cellar of Nora and Thorvald’s beautiful London home. The cellar appears to be the family nerve centre. Nora welcomes guests down there and plies them with drinks from the double-doored fridge. She uses the space to store the presents and she sets up their Christmas tree opposite the washing machine. A strange place for a Christmas tree.

Without the ‘Ibsen’ label, this coarse, superficial yuppie melodrama would attract no interest from the public

Without the ‘Ibsen’ label, this coarse, superficial yuppie melodrama would attract no interest from the public

Many other details feel wrong. Nora tells a friend that........

© The Spectator