Review: Seattle Rep's A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 Fails to Connect

A few years back I was fortunate enough to see Lucas Hnath's wonderful play, "A Doll's House, Part 2" on Broadway and was blown away. So, when the Seattle Rep announced it as part of their season I was absolutely thrilled. Then when they announced the powerhouse cast of some of Seattle's finest actors, Pamela Reed, Michael Winters, Khanh Doan, and Laura Kenny in the play, I was over the moon. This should be a slam dunk! Which then begs the question from me, "What happened?" as the performance I saw last night felt stiff and disjointed at times as if the actors were simply reading from the script. It picked up a bit by the end, but this is certainly not what I've come to expect from the Rep.

We'll get into some specifics in a minute but let's talk about the show first. If you're unfamiliar with the original Ibsen classic "A Doll's House" or maybe need a refresher, not to worry, there's a wonderful synopsis in the lobby. Suffice to say it's 1879 and doting Housewife Nora (Reed) is fed up with her controlling life and controlling Husband Torvald (Winters) and so, by the end, chooses to leave him and her children behind in search of a new, independent life. Now in Part 2, Hnath proffers a "what if" as Nora returns to the house and family she walked out on 15 years prior. And her return begs the questions, where has she been, what has she been doing, and why come back now?

The play beautifully dives even further into gender roles and attitudes beyond its predecessor while infusing itself with modern language and humor to make everything resonate and connect with modern audiences. And in five tight scenes the piece flies by during its 90-minute, no intermission runtime. Or rather it should but right from the start everyone seemed like they needed more rehearsal time. With dialog delivered in a stilted manner, lines that are written as interrupted or trailed off sentences read with full stop inflections waiting for the next person to speak, and no one really connecting, this play, which is all conversation, feels completely unnatural. Now one could make the argument that it was a directorial choice from director Braden Abraham, that since the family never really gets past their own wants to open up to the others that this was a purposeful style, but there's a difference between distant & detached and stiff & underprepared and the performance I saw fell squarely into the latter.

As I said, the pacing and naturalistic tone does pick up a bit by the end and there are some quite engaging moments but since we've already slogged through so much bad pacing and trodding over each other's lines previously, the tone has already been tainted. I don't know if this was an issue of a lack of rehearsals or some greater issue since I know these actors are capable of so much better but whatever the case is, I know the Rep audience expects better and this piece deservers better. And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give the Seattle Rep's production of "A Doll's House, Part 2" a "disappointed and I hope they settle in as the run goes on" MEH+. A big disappointment for one of the shows I was most looking forward to this season.

"A Doll's House, Part 2" performs at the Seattle Rep through April 28th. For tickets or information contact the Seattle Rep box office at 206-443-2222 or visit them online at www.seattlerep.org.