Doll's House, A

David Thacker directs this film adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play that struck an early blow for feminism. Nora Helmer (Juliet Stevenson) secretly borrowed money from Nils Krogstad (David Calder) so that her husband Torvald (Trevor Eve) could recover from a serious illness without financial worry; she has been repaying the loan with money from her household allowance. Torvald becomes bank director and wants to fire Krogstad. Krogstad discovers that Nora forged a signature and threatens to reveal the truth unless she convinces Torvald not to fire him.

This overview of Henrik Ibsen's life and writing from the Famous Authors series contextualizes Ibsen's upbringing in tight-knit, strictly religious communities in isolated Norway. As a young man, he left his family home in a desire to break away from the staid and religious environment, and worked toward university and made friends that supported his talents. While he failed to pass matriculation exams in Oslo, he began to publish plays and continued to meet intellectual friends who supported his work, which led to a job as a theater director in Bergen. Ibsen eventually moved to Rome—where he met his publisher, Frederick Hegel, and began to gain some success—then later moved to Germany. The video discusses the way Ibsen's plays about small communities and everyday human drama, like A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, changed the theater for years to come. (38 minutes)

This program, narrated by Ibsen biographer Michael Meyer, charts the development of Henrik Ibsen's style over four periods: his early years of failure; his epic dramas; his sociological plays, such as A Doll's House, Ghosts, and Rosmersholm; and his final plays, including Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, and Little Eyolf, in which he dealt with the dark interior of the human soul. Televised productions and theater excerpts showcase Ibsen's works, while writers John Mortimer and D. M. Thomas and psychologist Anthony Storr consider their complexity and treatment of daring themes such as women's rights, venereal disease, and parental responsibility. (58 minutes)

Ibsen's career can be divided into four periods. "A Doll's House" is written in the third period and is the most influential play ever written. It is about the fulfillment of women's destiny. (5:25)

Second only to Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen is the most-performed playwright in the world. This program, as much a tribute to the art of theater as to the immortal Ibsen, reveals a perennial fascination with Norway’s master playwright. Excerpts from A Doll’s House, Peer Gynt, and other productions captured on film in the United States, Canada, Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Serbia, Iran, China, Argentina, and Venezuela are included, as well as interviews with renowned actor Earl Hyman and other notable interpreters of Ibsen’s plays. (51 minutes)