Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 217
Lee Breuer’s celebrated production of Dollhouse with the Mabou Mines company, which he co-heads in New York, was
remarkable for casting all the male roles in this adaptation of Ibsen’s play (usually translated as A Doll’s House) with
actors four feet tall or less, and with the play’s women towering two feet above them. The setting (by Narelle Sisson)
was also a “doll house,” with miniature walls and furniture. Maude Mitchell plays Nora in this performance, seen at the
2007 Edinburgh Festival, with Mark Povinelli as her husband, Torvald. © Geraint Lewis
than clear-cut. As such, while realism does not inherently
advocate one straightforward position, its works inevitably
have political repercussions. The exposure of society’s
suppressed secrets can be potentially scandalous—but
also, as history shows, extremely popular.
The success of realism is well established; it remains
one of the dominant modes of drama to this day. At its
most profound, when crafted and performed by consummately
skilled artists, realistic theatre can generate
extremely powerful audience empathy by virtue of the
insight and clarity it brings to real-world moments. In
giving us characters, the realistic playwright gives us
companions—fellow travelers on the voyage of human
discovery with whom we can compare thoughts and feelings.
In their uncertainties and trepidations, wistfulness,
halting but sincere speech, and conversational syntax,
we recognize ourselves; in that recognition we gain an
understanding of our own struggles and a compassion for
all human endeavors.
PIONEERS OF REALISM
The realistic theatre had its beginnings in the four-year
period that saw the premieres of three shocking plays
by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House
(1867), Ghosts (1881), and An Enemy of the People
(1882). Already famous for historical and poetic dramas,
including the magnificent Peer Gynt (1867), Ibsen
(1828–1906), soon to be known as the “father of dramatic
realism,” turned his attention in these works to more
contemporary and everyday themes: the role of women
in society, hereditary disease, mercy killing, and political
hypocrisy. Ordinary people populate Ibsen’s realistic
world with issues that affect ordinary husband-wife,