November 21, 2019

At the Doll's House Café...

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... you can talk about whatever you want.

(I took the photograph on Sunday, just before a performance of "A Doll's House 2" at the American Players Theater, the last play of the season. I saw the classic Ibsen play "A Doll's House" twice at the APT this year. "A Doll's House 2" is recent play (from 2017), written by Lucas Hnath. It has 4 characters from the original play, and we see them 15 years later. So: How did it go for Nora after she slammed the door on Torvald?)

57 comments:

gilbar said...

they've made a play out of the Eliza Dushku TV show? That sounds pretty COOL!

Jersey Fled said...

Damn spellcheck.

More to follow.

YoungHegelian said...

Mao Tse Tung's 4th & last wife, Jiang Qing was for many years an actress in pre-revolutionary Chinese film & theater. Guess what was her favorite role?

Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House.

Pre-revolutionary Shanghai had many Western influences.

chuck said...

Torvalds went on to write Linux and Git. Never heard of Nora.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...


True dat.

Jersey Fled said...

CNN is reporting that an FBI official is being investigated for altering a 302 report used in a FISA application.

Jersey Fled said...

Further:

The finding is expected to be part of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's review of the FBI's effort to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.

Andrew said...

Another statue comes down. Even the Lewis and Clark expedition isn't free from the Left's absurdities.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/11/so-long-sacagawea.php

Mark said...

Tonight it's Balance of Terror. One of the best episodes, although more of a submarine war story than science fiction.

First look at the Romulans - for us and for Starfleet.

Last appearance for Yeoman Janice Rand.

Mark said...

CNN is reporting that an FBI official is being investigated for altering a 302 report used in a FISA application.

The dirty FBI official should immediately become a candidate for president. Then it would be an outrageous impeachable offense to further investigate him.

Ken B said...

Sounds dull. Tom Stoppard did a brilliant job with Rosenkrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead, but no other such thing I have seen or read was worth much. Especially if it gets political, as I expect this one did.

Jersey Fled said...

Mark said:

Tonight it's Balance of Terror. One of the best episodes, although more of a submarine war story than science fiction.

Based on the movie "The Enemy Below"

My favorite Star Trek episode.

narciso said...

It was based on run silent run deep, by edward beach captain usn

narciso said...

It was a cold war allegory, which they occassionally allowed the omega glory was another.

tim in vermont said...

I used to think that media types at CNN, MSNBC, or the Washington Post would maybe feel shame at turning into complete partisan hacks and propaganda merchants, but it occurred to me that they probably feel like they are part of “the movement” which, after all, needs propagandists too, so they go home feeling pride at the lies they tell in service of their “higher” goals.

mockturtle said...

Mao Tse Tung's 4th & last wife, Jiang Qing was for many years an actress in pre-revolutionary Chinese film & theater. Guess what was her favorite role?

Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House.


Prepared her for her 'Gang of Four' persona.

tim in vermont said...

"CNN is reporting that an FBI official is being investigated for altering a 302 report used in a FISA application.”

JudicialWatch had that a couple weeks ago.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

the stage floor is house-shaped, like the backdrop cut-out,

...maybe like those 'suitcase' doll-houses?
*****

Professor Ann, you may find this interview with a rugby guy amusing

https://twitter.com/i/status/1197465281527975939

Jersey Fled said...

Within the last 20 minutes CNN has changed the article from "FBI official" to "former FBI lawyer"

Also added a couple of paragraphs to the effect that this is no big deal and Trump is still a big meany.

Ken B said...

“former FBI lawyer”. Presumably a lawyer formerly employed by the FBI and so still a “former FBI official” .

William said...

I saw A Doll's House. It's one of those classics that you feel you have to see if only to see what the fuss is all about. I think Cersei in GOT achieves what Nora in her inchoate way was reaching for.

tim in vermont said...

"Fiona Hill says she heard Putin say directly in 2011 "that he saw American fracking as a great threat to Russian interests.”

She said a few sensible things. This one is self evidently true, and makes you wonder why Putin wouldn’t want an anti fracker like Hillary as president.

Birkel said...

Would Freeman Hunt like to discuss the Sacagawea statue that Charlottesville, VA is removing?

Any more ideas about that slippery slope?

Big Mike said...

"A Doll's House 2" claims that Nora made her living as an author. In reality ...

Since we are talking about the the 1870s, Nora had no choice but to make her living as a prostitute. Initially her looks and manners allowed her to live in a plush brothel, but as her looks faded she moved from high class establishments to huddling in an alleyway and having sex for just one or two kroner. She died of a combination of syphilis and tuberculosis, unknown and unmourned.

Torvald had her declared legally dead years ago and remarried. The children never saw their mother again after she slammed the door shut.

Kathryn51 said...

New topic for those reading all angles of the impeachment hearings.

I am now seeing things on Twitter that Fiona Hill said something-something that somehow claims/admits that the Steele dossier was all a product of intentional Russian disinformation and that it was understandable that the FBI, State Department Flaks, CIA, etc, etc were innocent dupes (my words, not sure what she said) when they filed the FISA application.

Can anyone unravel this for me? I've been avoiding the impeachment hearings, but have circled the calendar for Dec. 9 when the Horowitz report is released (interesting it's not a Friday dump - which means. . . .the swamp can't bury it.)

narciso said...


Like this:


https://mobile.twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1197618349624172547

narciso said...

Of course strobe talbott showed her a cooy and ahe never protested

mockturtle said...

Apparently Yang's angry supporters gathered at the MSNBC HQ chanting their displeasure at the disrespect paid their candidate. Good for them! High time these media networks took their share of wrath. They certainly deserve it.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

anyone know the latest tally of altered FISA/302's by the Derp State?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1197712101143433216

https://t.co/Lrt1rh1hG6

https://conservativedailypost.com/mccabe-altered-strzoks-302-notes-on-gen-flynn-interview-and-destroyed-evidence/

https://twitter.com/i/status/1197675096384659458

Lewis Wetzel said...

I keep hearing from the MSM that the idea that the Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election on Hillary's behalf has been "debunked." I don't have a lot of confidence in the ability of our intelligence services to make and absolute finding like that. The doc released by Obama's people just before Trump was inaugurated spoke in terms of "confidence levels" rather than in absolutes.
It's crazy over there in Eastern Europe, Americans don't always understand how crazy. You have pro-Russian people working in the Ukrainian intelligence services. Putin's FSB in Russia is a mare's nest of factions. When the NSA says that the Russians were behind pro-Trump & anti-Hillary Facebook ad campaigns, how, exactly, do they know that Putin backed the operation? For more than a half century, our intelligence services have failed, time and time again, to accurately assess what our enemies were up to.

Narayanan said...

Q: Kramer vs Kramer is already sequel to Doll's House

narciso said...

Theres a host of issues, first was the malware russian, no most likely ukrainuan, second was it unique to the fsb no it wascommercially available was it official or part of the 'humpty dumpty' hacker sybdicate.

Kathryn51 said...

narciso said...

Like this:

https://mobile.twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1197618349624172547


narciso, yes that is one of the tweets. Thank you. I'm just wondering what Ms. Fiona said regarding the Steele dossier - OR, are some, like Schachtel, extrapolating from her comments?

Also, John Solomon feels that she personally attacked his reporting - not sure why.

I don't personally care, but I do like to occasionally poke at my lib FB friends when they go they do their 5 times a day freak-out.

narciso said...

Probable a number of analysts have looked into the matter to come to this comclusion

narciso said...

Well follow the link to the examiner, this is not a new soeculation any notion of ukrainian involvement favors russia, ant carrier of said notion is a bot.

Zach said...

How does it compare to Hamlet 2?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzwJTOogKyc

narciso said...

Speculation, its their out, butit doesnr explain why they still employed it

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

some more gristly "non-partisan" grist for the Felonia Hill mill

as per the inimitable Roscoe B. Davis:

https://twitter.com/RoscoeBDavis1/status/1197572263144558594

Yancey Ward said...

"A Doll's House" was a play I read in college, also "Enemy of the People". I didn't particularly like either one, but like the former more than the latter.

Quaestor said...

[STOS episode "Balance of Terror"] was based on run silent run deep...

Not hardly.

Ken B said...

Kathryn
So it’s Dec 9 now? What was it a month ago? We will see. Dec 9 2020 is still a possibility.

Wilbur said...

A Doll's House was assigned reading for us in high school 50 years ago. I remember noticing that the nun teaching the class was very excited and looking forward to discussing it with us, driving home the point of how awful men were.

OK, whatever, Sister.

rehajm said...

We took away Biden’s groping now there’s nothing left.

Ann Althouse said...

""A Doll's House 2" claims that Nora made her living as an author. In reality ...Since we are talking about the the 1870s, Nora had no choice but to make her living as a prostitute."

Ibsen based his play on the story of a real woman he knew and she did, in fact, become a writer.

I was hoping "A Doll's House 2" would have references to the play that was based on what happened and how that affected he. I would have loved to see Ibsen as a character in the play.

From the Wikipedia article on the Ibsen play: "A Doll's House was based on the life of Laura Kieler (maiden name Laura Smith Petersen), a good friend of Ibsen. Much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband, Victor. Similar to the events in the play, Laura signed an illegal loan to save her husband. She wanted the money to find a cure for her husband's tuberculosis. She wrote to Ibsen, asking for his recommendation of her work to his publisher, thinking that the sales of her book would repay her debt. At his refusal, she forged a check for the money. At this point she was found out. In real life, when Victor discovered about Laura's secret loan, he divorced her and had her committed to an asylum. Two years later, she returned to her husband and children at his urging, and she went on to become a well-known Danish author, living to the age of 83. Ibsen wrote A Doll's House at the point when Laura Kieler had been committed to the asylum, and the fate of this friend of the family shook him deeply, perhaps also because Laura had asked him to intervene at a crucial point in the scandal, which he did not feel able or willing to do. Instead, he turned this life situation into an aesthetically shaped, successful drama. In the play, Nora leaves Torvald with head held high, though facing an uncertain future given the limitations single women faced in the society of the time. Kieler eventually rebounded from the shame of the scandal and had her own successful writing career while remaining discontented with sole recognition as "Ibsen's Nora" years afterwards."

Ann Althouse said...

"A Doll's House 2" isn't a feminist tirade of some sort. Each of the 4 characters has a different view of things, and each holds his/her own as they face off. Nora is in every scene, so she has the most lines, but she's confronted by the nanny who raised her children, by one of the children who is now a young woman, and by the husband. It's very well balanced, and you don't feel instructed to agree with Nora. It's played as a comedy, with some very broad clowning. The cleared off stage (based on the cluttered room in "A Doll's House) is like a boxing ring.

I'm not saying it's a great play. I had some problems with it, but I respect the effort the playwright made to show the complexity of life and to avoid preaching of any kind (other than to give Nora some big broad attacks on marriage, but those are not presented as arguments that are supposed to convince us).

BTW, the woman sitting behind us (who'd seen the play more than once before) was WAY overreacting to the comedy, hooting with laughter at every single thing that could be interpreted as funny. This interfered with my ability to experience the humor.

Ann Althouse said...

I read the Ibsen play in high school and maybe in college too.

I saw the play in NYC in 1975 starring Liv Ullmann and Sam Waterson. Waterson had broken his leg and had to play the role on crutches. They didn't reblock the staging, so he was moving about from here to there the way stage actors do, but he was on crutches. It was kind of absurd. Liv Ullman was a huge star at the time.

rehajm said...

I don’t get this trend of world leaders getting together at the big table and filling the space with organic matter. They had the EU meeting where they dumped over the vegetable cart front and center. Now at the trade talks there’s a hedge row of purple plants the sides gavevto talk over. Are they simulating back yard banter between farmers and/or neighbors?

Big Mike said...

Ibsen based his play on the story of a real woman he knew and she did, in fact, become a writer.

I was aware of that, and also aware that the woman was divorced and sent off to a lunatic asylum. She did become a writer, but only after she and her husband were reconciled. “A Doll’s House 2” is set 15 years after Ibsen’s original play (so still in the 19th century), and I understand that the play asserts she has had no contact with former husband, nor even her children, in the interim. We are talking 19th century, and without a man to provide for her a woman was exceptionally vulnerable. The 19th century was not the 20th. It was a very different time with a vastly different culture. What I described would have been the fate of a divorced woman who had not already achieved success as a writer using a male pen name or was otherwise supported by a husband (or an indulgent brother, like Janes Austen, or as a wealthy man’s mistress).

Why do you think women of the 19th century put up with philandering husbands in the 19th century? Do you imagine them to be less proud than a modern female?

MayBee said...

BTW, the woman sitting behind us (who'd seen the play more than once before) was WAY overreacting to the comedy, hooting with laughter at every single thing that could be interpreted as funny. This interfered with my ability to experience the humor.

That's so funny you said that. That happens with me both with people who laugh too hard and cry too hard.
The last time I was at a play, I was certain the guy down the row from me was placed there to laugh at every almost funny thing, as part of the production crew.

rcocean said...

Nora did great after leaving Torvald - she went to sea and become the 1st Female herring boat captain and then a suffragette, and decided to remarry. Only this time with Laura, her new best "Friend". Meanwhile Torvald, descended into a nightmare of drink and regret, and then was rescued by the love of a good woman.

rcocean said...

"Liv Ullman was a huge star at the time."

She was Streep before Streep.

rcocean said...

In 19th century Norway crazy women got committed to the asylum, in 21st Century America, they run for President.

rcocean said...

I like Ibsen, but he's not a barrel of laughs.

rcocean said...

"BTW, the woman sitting behind us (who'd seen the play more than once before) was WAY overreacting to the comedy, hooting with laughter at every single thing that could be interpreted as funny. This interfered with my ability to experience the humor."

Annoying but not much you can do about it. "Hey, would you stop laughing so much at this comedy?" doesn't seem reasonable.

tcrosse said...

In the opera Rosina, by Hiram Titus, the Countess has run off with Cherubino to live in Madrid. He attempts to make a living as an artist to support her and their baby. Almaviva seeks them out in disguise. Feminist message ensues. Well, it was 1980 in Minneapolis so it seemed like a good idea.

Ken B said...

Althouse
Thanks for the summary.
We have seen on this blog before the myth that women writers were rare in the 19th century. At least in English speaking countries it is very much a myth. The bestselling titles of the century in both the USA and England were (different) books by (different) women.

tpceltus said...

I saw Doll's House 2 here in the DC area. I also had the experience of laughter by many in the audience of anything remotely comic. It's an odd experience and, yes, it is distracting. I was wondering [during the play! :( ] if they were theater students or friends of the cast who thought they were doing something encouraging for the actors or if I somehow missed something.