A Doll’s House
by Henrik Ibsen
Translated by Kenneth McLeish
Directed by Andrew Fletcher
Performance dates
Wednesday 26 March to Saturday 29 March 2014 at the Rondo Theatre, Larkhall.
Audition dates
Open auditions on Friday 1 November at 7.30pm and Sunday 3 November at 10.30am at the Drama Hut, Vane Street, Bath. (http://bathdrama.com/page10.
Possible call-back auditions on Friday 8 November at 7.30pm
About the play
Nora, a young wife and mother is married to Torvald, a recently promoted bank manager. To the neighbours, their life together seems perfectly content, settled and respectable. Until a terrible secret from Nora’s past comes back to haunt her and she begins to question everything about her marriage, her family and her life.
Ibsen’s ground-breaking play is widely regarded as a landmark of the modern stage. It is a story of domestic revolution, female empowerment and the journey towards self-liberation and personal fulfilment.
This Rondo Theatre Company production will set the action in the 1950s, in an era where post war austerity was slowly giving way to consumerism, but the social liberation of the Swinging Sixties had not yet swung into life.
About the characters
This is a production with a cast of six largely substantial roles which should appeal to actors keen to work on developing credible characters.
Playing ages are flexible and will depend on the combinations of different actors cast.
- Nora Helmer (playing age 25-35) – a very substantial, but rewarding role for any actress. Nora is flighty and skittish but gradually grows in strength and character as the play progresses to make very significant and radical decisions about her life. With the exception of a brief interlude in Act 3, she is on stage throughout.
- Torvald Helmer (playing age 30-45) – Nora’s husband. A bank manager with a very traditional view of his wife and marriage. Successful, oppressive, controlling, patronising, but far from a caricature.
- Kristine Linde (playing age 25-40) – Nora’s slightly older school friend. A widower who returns to town to find work and becomes a trusted confidante. Sensible, clear thinking and in many ways the catalyst for Nora’s radical actions.
- Dr Rank (playing age 30-50) – an old family friend to the Helmers and an ever-present visitor to their home. He is secretly in love with Nora, but with an aggressive illness, time is running out for him to make his feelings clear.
- Krogstad (playing age 30-50) – a man with a sketchy past, but desperate to re-establish himself as credible and respectable. So desperate, he is prepared to blackmail Nora, threatening to reveal her secret.
- Anne-Marie (playing age 50+) – the Helmers’ nanny. A smaller role in terms of dialogue, a combination of the nanny and maid characters in the original text. Anne-Marie gave up her own daughter to care for Nora as a child and is now nanny to Nora’s three children.
I plan to have open auditions for anyone interested in one or more of these roles on Friday 1 November at 7.30pm and Sunday 3 November at 10.30am. Please attend one or other open audition but not both.
Given the scale of some of the roles, there may be a call back audition for a small number on Friday 8 November at 7.30pm.
Some audition pieces are available in advance. Please contact me via the RTC contact form for more information. If you would like to audition but are unable to make either of the open auditions, please contact me to arrange an alternative time.
Andrew Fletcher