Digging into the archives, we unearth the original articles printed in the 半岛体育s of yesteryear.
In 1997 Janet McTeer made her celebrated Broadway debut in a revival of Henrik Ibsen鈥檚 classic A Doll鈥檚 House, which transferred to New York after an acclaimed London run. Critics penned raves for her riveting performance as Nora, which earned her the Olivier and Tony Award for Best Actress.
Ibsen鈥檚 heroine returns to Broadway this season through the prism of playwright Lucas Hnath, who imagines Nora鈥檚 own return to the Helmer household many years later in the inventive new play A Doll's Life, Part 2. Laurie Metcalf has just earned a 2017 Tony nomination for her interpretation of Nora in Hnath鈥檚 bold re-imagining. The play earned eight Tony nominations in total, including Best Direction of a Play (Sam Gold) and Best Play.
We go back to where Ibsen鈥攁nd McTeer鈥攍eft off with Nora in this interview from June 1997.
Janet McTeer is thrilled to be on Broadway, and Broadway is thrilled to have her. Reviewing her astonishing portrayal of Nora, the childlike housewife who finally asserts her feminine independence in Ibsen鈥檚 A Doll鈥檚 House, Ben Brantley of The New York Times called her a 鈥渞evelation,鈥� and said she made it seem as if the century-old role 鈥渨as only just written, and written specifically for her.鈥� Sellout audiences at the Belasco Theatre agree.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all so amazing,鈥� the tall, blonde, 35-year-old actress says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 really take it all in. But I鈥檓 very happy. I鈥檓 enjoying every second. I can鈥檛 quite remember the last time I was in such a good mood.鈥�
McTeer has every right to feel that way. Earlier this year, she won the Olivier Award in London, besting three of Britain鈥檚 finest actresses: Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Diana Rigg, and Eileen Atkins. Critics have said that McTeer and her superb supporting cast 鈥攊ncluding Owen Teale as her husband, Torvald, and their imaginative director, Anthony Page鈥攈ave taken an 1879 classic and made it a deeply relevant and moving contemporary drama.
Sitting in a restaurant near the theatre, McTeer relates how it all came to pass鈥攈ow a nearly six-foot-one actress, too tall in almost anyone鈥檚 mind to play a doll-like housewife, came to give what is perhaps the quintessential performance in the role.
鈥淚 had seen the play a few times, and I had a lot of ideas about it,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淎nd then in 1995 I was asked to do it on BBC radio. I said yes, because I also thought I was too tall, that I wasn鈥檛 right for it on the stage. But after doing it on the radio, I decided that Nora may be a little person on the inside鈥攂ut she isn鈥檛 a little person on the outside.鈥�
She took her ideas to Thelma Holt, a London producer and a good friend. Holt liked what she heard and produced the play in London (Bill Kenwright is the lead producer on Broadway).
Nora Helmer, McTeer says, 鈥渉as no self-esteem. She has no idea who she is or how to be herself. She was brought up to be a good wife and a good mother, and she thought she was happy, playing out this game of who she should be.鈥� Then, suddenly, everything goes wrong in her life, and 鈥渟he realizes she鈥檚 a much bigger, much better person.鈥�
As the start of the play, McTeer鈥檚 Nora is a tense personification of perpetual motion, a nervous mixture of manic laughter and anxious chatter, a woman trying to hide her true feelings from herself and everyone else. Such a mammoth self-doubt can be very annoying, McTeer says, but that鈥檚 the point. 鈥淚 quite like the idea that people go out at intermission thinking, 鈥楽he鈥檚 really quite irritating, isn鈥檛 she?鈥� She is irritating. She has all those things that would irritate me in a woman.鈥�
In her final act, however, Nora is transformed from a doll wife to an assertive, newly enfranchised woman who walks out of her marriage, slamming the door of diminishment behind her. Her actions have long been considered the first display of feminism onstage. But since the play鈥檚 premiere almost 120 years ago, some critics have found the change too sudden. McTeer鈥檚 interpretation provides an answer. 鈥淢y take is that she doesn鈥檛 turn into a great feminist overnight,鈥� the actress says. 鈥淲hat happens is that she doesn鈥檛 know who she is, but she is going to have a good go at trying to find out.鈥�
Torvald, her husband, has often been portrayed as older, distant, pompous, and passionless. Audiences see no love in the relationship and often feel no emotional connection. Owen Teale, however, provides a younger, sexier Torvald who, whatever his limitations, clearly loves Nora鈥攁nd Nora loves him back. There is a physical attraction, a passion between the two that draws audiences in and makes them feel the pain of the ultimate split.
鈥淲henever I saw the play, Torvald was always cast as a much older man,鈥� McTeer says. 鈥淚 hated that. I thought it was completely wrong. I thought the play was much bigger, much better than that. It鈥檚 not a feminist play. It鈥檚 a humanist play from which you can draw feminist conclusions. Couples are always symbiotic鈥攐r at least they once were. It is much more interesting to see the marriage appear to work at the beginning, although it has no depth. Both Torvald and Nora play games. They play out roles. That is so true in so many relationships. When children arrive or when some crisis occurs, couples don鈥檛 have the resources to deal with it because they鈥檝e been so busy getting on with their lives. They haven鈥檛 learned how to sit down and discuss things. I thought that was such a modern notion, and it鈥檚 all there in the play.鈥�
McTeer grew up in Yorkshire, in north England, her father a railway employee and her mother a worker in a nursing home. And she says her take on Nora relates to her childhood.
鈥淲e are a very close family, and I love them very much,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut I鈥檓 definitely the odd one out. I live a completely different kind of lifestyle. I always was different. I felt like a fish out of water; I really never knew who I was. That鈥檚 what I drew on for Nora: the idea of somebody brought up in an environment in which you do not fit.鈥�
She had no idea she would wind up in the theatre. 鈥淏ut then I got a job selling coffee at the York Theatre, and when I met theatre people, something clicked. I felt comfortable with them; I felt like myself. I decided to go to drama school based just on that feeling. I had never done any acting.鈥�
McTeer attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and soon found that the theatre was her natural environment. In recent years she has starred in London in Shakespeare鈥檚 Much Ado About Nothing and at the National Theatre with Anthony Sher in Chekhov鈥檚 Uncle Vanya. American audiences know her best as Vita Sackville-West in Portrait of a Marriage on PBS.
For now, McTeer says, her focus is still on Nora. But after the run is over, she is hoping for more roles in the States. And there is one part she would very much like to try. 鈥淚鈥檇 love to play Hamlet,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n a way Nora鈥檚 a female Hamlet. But I don鈥檛 think I ever will.鈥�
She pauses. 鈥淏ut you never know. Maybe one day.鈥� After all, when it comes to talent, the door never slams.
