MasterWorks Preview Series presents a Staged Reading of A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

On Nov 4 at 2:30pm, I saw a staged reading of “A Doll’s House” by Herik Ibsen. This was a part of the Arts at Baruch category. This was an abridged staged reading directed by Eric Krebs. I selected this workshop because I was very interested on what was going on in the arts at Baruch. Performance art was a big part of my high school career, so I was more than looking forward to seeing this play. I felt right at home when watching this play, since I watched a lot of staged readings at high school.
This workshop surprisingly met my expectations. I was hooked onto the play from the very moment these actors opened their mouths. These actors said their lines with great conviction and I believed their characters. This play was filled with suspense. I learned a lot about the history of this play, as well as the time period when this play was released. This play was very unusual compared to other plays. In this play, Nora Helmer stood up for herself and left her selfish husband Torvold. This play portrayed the message that woman can be as strong and independent as men.
I also learned a couple of life lessons from this play. I learned that many people nowadays think more about the appearance than the substance. For example, Torvald scolded Nora because of selfish reasons and said that he was only staying with Nora in order to maintain appearances to the public. The world would be a better place if we all thought more about the substance than the appearance. Another life lesson I learned is that someone’s true character can be exposed when the times are rough and not comfortable. Nora saw her husband’s true colors when he found out that he was in jeopardy of losing his job position because of her forgery. When the times were perfect prior to that, Torvald was nothing but nice to Nora. He treated her like a kid, but Nora didn’t realize it yet.
I would recommend this play to anyone in Baruch. Just make sure you sit near the front row or else the director will force you to move to the front row. The play will start late and you won’t leave on-time.