New Heights for DollHouse

By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 30, 2005 10:12PM

The internationally renowned Mabou Mines troupe opens their reimagined version of Heinrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the MCA tonight. Reimagined to say the least, the Obie-award winning DollHouse casts very tall women alongside very short men (3’4” to 4’5”) to convey how outsized Ibsen’s heroines remain in the collective imagination. The cast frolics in a toy house on toy furniture accompanied by piano concerti.

[NOTE: We starred in our middle school’s staged reading of A Doll’s House when we were around 4 feet tall, but no one bothered covering it then! Sure, life’s real fair!!]

Even if you’re normally turned off by avant-garde conceits, this looks like a better than average MCA offering. Too often reinterpretations of classic theater are half-hearted: Shakespearean actors dressed as gang members or Checkovian characters in a coffee house. DollHouse seems to retain Ibsen’s central message while considering its comic possibilities and producing something completely new.

DollHouse, presented by Mabou Mines and the Court Theater, plays at the Museum of Contemporary Art tonight through December 18. Tickets are $26-50 and $21-40 for MCA members. More information at www.mcachicago.org/mca/performance and at www.maboumines.org